


Unexpected Recruits

by EmilytheLemur



Category: Penguins of Madagascar
Genre: Alternate Universe - No Time Travel, F/F, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2021-01-06
Packaged: 2021-03-11 03:14:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 14
Words: 29,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28058220
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilytheLemur/pseuds/EmilytheLemur
Summary: Two girls were in their room, when suddenly a portal opens up and sucks them into the TV. Now they find themselves in a completely different world with very familiar characters. And a certain evil dolphin is after them. Will they ever get home, or will they have to stay in this new world forever? Read and find out!
Relationships: King Julien/OC, OCs relationship
Comments: 2
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

Emily sat in her room with her best friend, Jasmine. They were trying to work on a story, but Emily kept getting distracted by the television. Jasmine, on the other hand, didn’t care what was happening on the show that was playing in the background. She just wanted to get this chapter finished with. But between Emily’s wandering mind and writer’s block, they weren’t getting anything done.

As she thought about the story, Emily smoothed down her sweatpants and picked at her t-shirt. Her reddish brown hair fell into her eyes as she looked down at the piece of paper. She pushed up her glasses when they started slipping down her nose.

Meanwhile, Jasmine sat there awkwardly, overdressed in her black sweatshirt and black jeans. Her black hair was a mess and her brown eyes were lined with precisely drawn black makeup.

While Jasmine murmured to herself about the story, Emily glanced around her room. Her hazel gaze looked over the entertainment center that was pushed up against the wall. It was where she kept her TV, but it was also covered in junk such as folders, pencils, blank CDs, loose paper, and other small objects. She frowned when she remembered how she stayed up all night a few weeks ago cleaning all that up, and now she couldn’t believe it was a mess again…

She looked over at her closet. The door was open; it wasn’t able to close due to the mass of clothes and assorted junk. Her book bag was on top of the pile, and the brown box in which she kept all her books and movies was just barely visible under the clothes.

_ I need to clean my room… _ she thought, but every time she said that it usually took forever before she actually got around to doing it.

Emily turned back to the TV when she heard something about The Penguins of Madagascar. She saw a commercial about it. As soon as she realized that they were advertising a new episode that was coming up next, she almost squealed out loud with excitement. The Penguins of Madagascar was her favorite show of all time, and she never missed it. But the best part of this episode was that Dr. Blowhole was going to be in it.

Turning back to her friend, Emily asked,” Did you hear that?” She could hardly sit still.

Jasmine looked up from the papers spread out on Emily’s bed. “Hear what?” she asked in response, but she really didn’t care. She just wanted to get this chapter over with so they’d be one more step closer to finishing this story.

“A new episode of The Penguins of Madagascar is coming on next!” Emily announced excitedly in a high-pitched voice.

However her friend wasn’t excited like her. Jasmine rolled her eyes and murmured sarcastically,” Oh, yay.”

“Oh, come on,” Emily begged, nudging her. Then a sly smile crossed her face. “Blowhole’s in it.” She knew how much Jasmine loved Neil Patrick Harris, and every episode he’s in, she always roots for the dolphin. Emily tries to tell her that the penguins will win no matter what, but she keeps insisting that they were bound to slip up and Blowhole will defeat them for good.

After thinking about it for a long moment, Jasmine finally nodded. “Okay,” she agreed. “I’ll watch it on one condition.”

Emily blinked. “What’s that?”

“You help me with this story until it comes on.” Jasmine slipped the papers over to her friend.

“Okay.”

The two began to work on the story, discussing it and coming up with a few things, adding them to the story. But as soon as The Penguins of Madagascar theme song started playing, Emily immediately lost interest in the story and turned all her focus on the TV. Jasmine sighed and gathered the paper together, before begrudgingly compiling to watch the show as well.

* * *

**Meanwhile, in the PoM World**

Blowhole went in circles on his one wheeled segway. What was he to do? Those penguins had stopped him again and again. And one time was with music! He was so close that time, too.

“Red one!” he called out. “Bring me the list of possible allies!”

The lobster minion entered the room moments later and handed the list to the evil dolphin.

An aggravated look appeared on Blowhole’s face as he stared down at the paper. “Why are there holes all over this?” he demanded, waving the list around.

The lobster shrugged nervously and snapped its claws together. “Sorry, boss, it’s the claws.”

Dr. Blowhole glared down at the lobster a moment longer before looking over the list. “It’s useless! They won’t be able to help me.” He crumpled up the piece of paper and tossed it to the other side of the room. “Agent twelve is stuck in Hoboken for the time being. Hans is of no use and all other enemies of Skipper are unable to help me. What can I do to get revenge on the peng-u-ins?” the bottlenose muttered to himself.

For a while, nothing was said as Blowhole tried to come up with a plan to get rid of the penguins once and for all so they’d never get in his way again. He had almost forgotten that the lobster was there, but he turned back to his minion when the crustacean suggested,” What about getting help from humans?”

Blowhole pondered this and soon grew an evil smile. “Yes! That’s it! It’s so unexpected that it just might work. I can’t use any humans here,” he added after a moment. “They are all either too weak or too stupid to be of any use to me.”

“Why do they have to be from this world?” the lobster inquired. “I thought you had that universe portal thing.”

A wicked smile crossed Blowhole’s face. “Excellent idea, red one! I will use that machine to bring two recruits into my army and finally defeat the peng-u-ins! If I can get the right coordinates,” he went on to himself,” I’ll be able to pull the strongest humans from any universe I want. They will be under my control and I will be unstoppable!” He threw his head back and laughed maniacally.

* * *

**Back in the real New York**

As soon as the dolphin announced his plan, Jasmine looked interested in the snow for the first time. “An alternate universe thing?” she murmured as she rubbed her chin thoughtfully.

“I hope Julien and the penguins can stop him,” Emily said. She knew the good guys will always win, but she wondered how the flightless birds were going to stop the evil dolphin.

Jasmine was shaking her head. She glanced at her friend before turning back to the TV. “Blowhole’s going to win this time, I can feel it!” she declared, but a moment later, she added,” If the penguins  _ must _ win, it better be in the most awesome way possible! Maybe with a really, really powerful water blaster… Maybe they can use Blastoise!”

“Penguins of Madagascar and Pokemon crossover,” Emily giggled.

The two fell silent when they noticed Blowhole heading over to his universe portal machine.

The dolphin punched in numbers on a keypad, but for a moment nothing happened, to the girls’ disappointment. Then the screen on the machine started flicking on and off, frustrating the bottlenose greatly. Blowhole growled quietly,” Why isn’t this working?”

“What do you think is wrong?” Emily asked her friend.

Jasmine shrugged in response. They continued to watch the show, both curious to know what was about to happen. Was Blowhole going to get his recruits or would he have to come up with a new plan to defeat the penguins?

On the TV, Dr. Blowhole looked like he was getting increasingly annoyed by the second. Then he finally seemed to have had enough. He slammed his flipper on the keypad and sparks started shooting out of it. “Oh great, a malfunction,” he grumbled. “I don’t have time for this.”

Right when it seemed like all that time was wasted, a portal suddenly opened up and the girls found themselves engulfed in light.

“Man, that’s bright!” Jasmine covered her eyes and looked away from the TV.

Emily continued to stare at the screen, blinking when colorful splotches appeared in her vision. What she saw in front of her chilled her to the bone. “Jasmine, look at this!” she hollered over the loud noise that seemed to surround them all of the sudden.

Jasmine turned back to the TV and widened her eyes in shock. A swirling purple vortex seemed to be coming out of the screen. Last time she checked, Emily’s TV wasn’t 3D!

“Holy—“ She just barely stopped herself from cursing. Turning to Emily, she shouted,” What the heck is that?”

“I have no idea!” Emily answered, raising her voice so her friend could hear her.

“You don’t think—“ Jasmine was cut off when they started to feel the pull of the vortex. They grabbed hold of Emily’s bed in an attempt to keep themselves from being sucked in. They were torn between mortal terror and pure joy.

They could feel their grips slipping. Now they were hanging by their fingers; they couldn’t hold on much longer!

Emily had to shout above the sound of the vortex. “This thing is going to kill us!”

“Can nobody hear this?” Jasmine yelled.

Before any more could be said, the vortex gave one final pull and the girls were sucked in. The portal closed behind them and the bed collapsed on the floor, leaving the room in eerie silence.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**At Coney Island**

Scowling, Blowhole watched as the machine exploded in front of him, debris littering the room. “Well, there goes that plan,” he growled as he dodged a piece of metal that flew past his head. He rode his segway up to the mess and stared down at the smoking parts. The screen was cracked, but it was still blinking.

“At least it was able to retrieve two humans before it exploded,” he mumbled to himself. He stared down at the screen as it repeatedly blinked the words “Transport Successful”.

“Well, if it was successful, then why aren't they here?” the dolphin questioned in annoyance, face palming with his flipper. It was possible that they were transported but something went wrong in the process. He began to think of likely scenarios.

They could have been killed during the journey or, since the machine exploded before they arrived, they might have ended up somewhere else. He was hoping for the second option. That way he could track them down and go through with his plan.

“Great, looks like I need to find the humans.” The bottlenose dolphin started to think of possible locations. There were far too many to narrow down but one stuck out in his mind. Manhattan, New York.

Everything always seemed to happen there.

Dr. Blowhole bent over the cracked screen and squinted at it. Was it possible that since they were snatched from a different universe that it could have brought on some side effects? Perhaps a mutation? That could work in his favor, more brute force for his army. As long as they were intelligent and followed his orders, this plan could actually work, and he wouldn't need to worry about the penguins anymore.

“Now I just need to locate them,” he murmured. “Perhaps I should check on that live video feed in the peng-u-ins HQ.”

“Why do you want to check on the penguins, doc?” The voice made Blowhole jump. He had forgotten about the lobster.

“Because, red one, if two people who are possibly mutated come to New York, the media will be all over it and the peng-u-ins will know about it in no time.” An evil smile grew on his face. “They will lead me to their own destruction!”

The lobster looked confused. “If the media covers it, why not just keep an eye on the news? Cut the middle man out.”

Blowhole turned to the lobster. He hated it when one of his minions questions his actions, especially if they point out something that was so obvious that he missed. He leaned down on his segway until he was an inch away from the lobster. “I want to see the looks on the peng-u-ins faces when they realize they helped me,” he growled in a threatening tone.

Instantly the lobster nodded and stammered,” Y-Yes, boss.”

“Good.” Blowhole was satisfied that he got the creature to agree with him. “Now, go tell the others to keep an eye on the peng-u-ins and report back to me as soon as you hear something.”

The lobster nodded again and scurried off to obey the dolphin's orders without another word.

Blowhole watched the lobster disappear down the hallway, and when it was gone, he moved his gaze back to the still blinking screen on the floor. “Maybe I can track them using their signal from the machine.” Just as he said that, smoke started coming out of the screen and it stopped blinking. He sighed. “Something tells me today is not my day.”  


* * *

**With Emily and Jasmine**

It was an amazing yet terrifying experience. One minute they were in Emily's room, then the next they were in a dark vortex. Everything was pitch black. They couldn't even see each other, but they knew the other was there.

“This is incredible!” Jasmine exclaimed, her voice vibrating in the seemingly endless blackness.

“Where are we?” Emily inquired, more to herself than to her friend.

“No idea,” Jasmine replied in a dismissive tone. “Don't you feel like you're flying, though?”

Emily moved a little in her surroundings. There was an odd feeling in the air, a sense of weightlessness like they were in space. It did kind of feel like she was flying.

Just when she was beginning to enjoy herself, an odd tingling sensation started to go through her body. “Do you feel something weird?” Emily called out to her friend.

Jasmine also felt the same tingling sensation. It was actually starting to grow into something more painful, like a slight pinching feeling. At first, it didn't bother her that much, but the pain only grew. “Yeah, but it kinda hurts,” Jasmine winced.

Emily noticed an increasing pain going up her spine. “It really hurts now!” She tried to ignore the pain but it was growing by the second.

“I feel like I'm dying!” Jasmine said through clenched teeth. “Is it just me or is it getting worse?”

“Much worse!” Emily answered.

It was like a bolt of lightning struck their bodies. They ached all over. Their heads felt like something was pounding inside, and their bones felt odd and foreign underneath their skin. The agony was almost unbearable. They both let out screams of pain when it became too much for them.

There was a light up ahead but they were both falling into an unconscious state.

Jasmine felt her eyes closing, but she wasn't going to go down so easily. Emily fought to keep her eyes open also, not ready to submit to the exhaustion just yet.

However when another surge of pain hit them, that was it. They groaned and finally closed their eyes in defeat.

* * *

**Central Park Zoo, Penguin Habitat**

Skipper stood in front of a bowling pin that looked like a ninja. He held his flippers up, ready to show his team how the move went. The other three penguins stood off to the side, watching their leader intently.

A moment later, Skipper jumped into the air and spun, coming down right on top of the bowling pin. He knocked it into the water where it went under for a second, and then popped up to the surface.

The sound of clapping made Skipper turn around. Private was the one clapping as he bounced up and down. Kowalski had his flippers behind his back, nodding toward Skipper as if silently congratulating him, while Rico stood there with a huge smile on his face, calling out for more.

Skipper walked over to his team and stopped in front of them. “Now that you've seen the move performed for yourselves, you three can give it a try,” he told them, and they all nodded, looking eager to do what their leader did.

Almost immediately, Private ran past the flat-headed penguin and came to a halt where a bowling pin was set up on the concrete island. “Can I go first, Skippah?” he asked, turning to look at his leader with bright eyes.

“Sure,” Skipper permitted, nodding. “Go ahead, young private.”

The small penguin bounced once in glee. Then he turned back to the bowling pin, his expression suddenly changing to seriousness. He stared at the pin, replaying what he just saw Skipper do in his head. He took a deep breath and copied his leader, doing it exactly like him. As he landed back on the island, he heard his friends congratulating him. Blushing, he waddled back to the others.

“Great job, Private!” There was pride in Skipper's voice which made Private happy. Then the leader turned away from the young penguin. “Alright, Rico, your turn.”

The psychopath nodded, but before he could walk over to his pin, Kowalski suddenly pushed between Private and Rico. He pointed upward. “What in the world of great science is that?” the tall penguin exclaimed.

The other three turned to where the strategist was pointing just in time to see the sky open up in a cloud of purple and spat out something that landed in the park. The penguins continued to stare at the sky even after it cleared up and it turned back to a light blue color.

“What was that?” Private turned huge eyes on Skipper, but the flat-headed penguin was just as confused as the others. He knew he needed to stay calm though so that his team didn't freak out.

“Come on,” the leader ordered. “We probably weren't the only ones who saw that. We need to get over there and check it out before someone else does.”

The other penguins nodded and followed their leader out of the habitat. They kept up with Skipper as he slid across the zoo on his belly, and when they reached the entrance, they all hopped to their feet. The gates were closed so they had to bounce off the sides of the arch until they could jump on top of the entrance, landing beside the clock tower.

Then, without hesitation, the leader ran to the other side, closely followed by his team. He jumped into the air, doing a few flips before landing outside the zoo. The other three soon joined him.

When they were all out of the zoo, Skipper started walking off with his team close behind him. They were heading to the center of the park where they saw the things fall out of the sky.

* * *

**Lemur Habitat**

The sky was light blue, the sun shining brightly with no clouds to cover it. Julien sat on his throne with his legs across one of the arms, while he laid his head as he stared up at the sky.

A mango was in his hands, a bite taken out of it. He leaned his head back until he could see Maurice on the other side of the bar, busy making the king's smoothie. The aye-aye was rushing to finish it, knowing that Julien was getting impatient.

Julien sighed and lifted his head up so he could take another bite out of the fruit in his paw. After swallowing the mouthful, he laid his head back down and stared up at the sky as he wondered what was taking Maurice so long. He's been making the smoothie for almost five minutes now.

Nearby, Mort was watching the king lay on his throne. The mouse lemur's tail was twitching as he stared at the royal feet. He wanted nothing more than to wrap his small body around his favorite things in the whole wide world and stay like that forever. But he knew as soon as he touched Julien's feet, the king would kick him off. Still that didn't stop him.

The small creature dashed over there, climbing the steps of the throne and latching himself onto Julien’s feet. The king instantly threw his head up and turned angrily to the annoying mouse lemur.

“Mort!” he yelled. “How many times am I telling you  _ not to touch the royal feet! _ ” His voice was harsh as he glared at Mort, who blinked big, round eyes at the king.

“Um…” The little lemur thought about the question, but before he could answer, Julien threw his feet outwards. Mort lost his grip and flew across the habitat. “Whee, I’m flying!” He hit the bouncy castle, causing him to spring higher in the air and land on the other side of the wall, outside the lemur habitat. But he immediately jumped back to his feet, unharmed. Then he hopped back over the wall and ran to the platform.

Julien looked back up at the sky, more impatient than before. “Maurice!” he called out to his adviser. “Is my smoothie ready yet?”

“Yes, Your Majesty,” the aye-aye answered, appearing next to the throne. He reached up to hand the cup to the king, who took it and started drinking.

Julien glanced up at the sky, holding his smoothie in his hand, sucking through the straw. Then one part of the sky, above the park, turned purple. The king’s eyes widened as he saw a hole appear, spitting out two shapes. The unknown things fell toward the ground. Then, as suddenly as it came, the rip in the sky was gone. Julien straightened up on his throne, still staring curiously at the sky that had turned a different color. But now it was light blue once more, looking as if nothing happened.

“Did you see that, Maurice?” Julien glanced down at his adviser, who was looking at Mort, watching the little lemur chase his bushy tail. But when the king asked him that question, he turned to him, confusion in his eyes.

“See what, Your Majesty?” he asked.

“That… er… purple swirly thingy,” replied Julien, pointing to where it had been.

Maurice followed the king’s finger but just saw the bright blue sky. “I have no idea what you’re talking about,” he admitted, turning back to Julien.

“I know what I saw!” Julien insisted. “Come on, I’ll show you!” He jumped off his throne and threw his smoothie to the ground. “I saw two shapes falling out of the hole. They crash landed in the park!” He dashed out of his habitat, followed by Maurice and Mort.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**With Emily and Jasmine**

Emily laid on her stomach, unaware of what was happening around her. Voices had awakened her, and they seemed to be echoing through her head. Although they sounded unclear to her at first, they were slowly becoming better to understand. The voices sounded familiar but she couldn’t place her finger on where she’s heard them before.

Gradually, she put together what the voices were saying, having to focus really hard to do so.

“—give me an analysis on the situation,” a commanding tone rang in her ears.

“It appears that these two fell from the sky and are in a state of unconsciousness,” another voice said.

She thought she could hear a slap but she was uncertain. These voices sounded really familiar; it bugged her that she couldn’t figure out why.

“I know that! I saw that with my own eyes.”

“Skippah, I think one of them moved,” a British voice spoke up.

“Which one?” the commanding voice asked.

“That one,” the young sounding voice answered.

Emily could picture an unseen person pointing at someone. Then a thought crossed her mind. Could it be Jasmine? She wanted to open her eyes to confirm her thoughts, but she was too tired. Emily sighed inwardly. She wasn’t going to get up for a while. She tried to recall the last thing she remembered.

Got sucked into a TV, came through a black space where they experienced a lot of agony before falling unconscious. Reality hit her like a ton of bricks. All that pain left her body aching all over. She let out an involuntary low, painful groan.

“Wait, I think that one’s waking up,” the one who was slapped said.

Emily finally found the strength to open her eyes and blinked them rapidly, trying to make out her surroundings. She couldn’t see very well, considering how blurry everything looked to her. “What happened?” she croaked out. Emily felt something shifting beside her, and she turned her head to see what it was. It was a blurry shape, but she guessed it was her friend. “Is that you, Jasmine?”

“Just give me a minute,” the creature replied groggily. Yep, definitely Jasmine’s voice.

Emily blinked her eyes and rubbed them with her hands. She blinked them open again and the first thing she saw was orange webbed feet. She looked up slowly and saw a penguin with a flat head. An oddly familiar looking flat-headed penguin. “Hi?” Emily said uncertainty.

“Where did you come from?” the penguin demanded.

Emily’s eyes went wide. “Y-You can t-talk?” she stuttered.

The penguin rolled its eyes. “‘Course I can talk. What do you think I am, stupid?”

“Whoa, what happened?” Jasmine’s voice came from beside Emily, who craned her neck and saw another penguin laying next to her with hazy half lidded eyes. “Man, I feel sick.”

The penguin had ebony feathers with a faint brown tint to them and a white stomach and face. A bang of feathers fell across one of its eyes sloppily. What got Emily thinking was its familiar brown eyes. Emily then knew it had to be her best friend.

“Jasmine?” she asked hesitantly.

“What?” Jasmine groaned. She turned her head and her eyes bugged out at the sight of her friend. Jasmine was speechless at what she saw. A ring tailed lemur with brown fur was in front of her. It had cherry red rings on its tail and fur like bangs fell over the tips of its eyes. Jasmine only knew it was Emily because of the familiar hazel eyes.

“What’s wrong?” Emily asked, fearing the worst.

Jasmine finally found the will to talk again. “Why are you a lemur?” she asked quietly.

Emily’s eyes went wide at those words. “I’m a what?”

“A lemur.” Jasmine rubbed her eyes and tried to sit up. She immediately saw four male penguins in front of her. “Oh my God,” she whispered. “Penguins!”

Emily sat up too and looked at her friend. She leaned in and said quietly,” You’re a penguin.”

Jasmine, for the second time, had her eyes bug out. “A  _ what _ ?” she yelped. It must have been some kind of messed up dream. No way was she a penguin. She slapped herself to wake up from the odd dream but this only earned her a stinging cheek. She rubbed it, confusion in her and Emily’s eyes.

“Sorry to interrupt your confusion but I think you should answer some of our questions,” a tall penguin told them.

Emily and Jasmine nearly gasped aloud, finally recognizing who were in front of them. It was Kowalski! Their eyes slowly examined the other penguins, and it hit them. These were the Penguins of Madagascar! Standing right here, in the flesh!

“No way, it’s them,” Jasmine whispered to her friend in disbelief.

“I can’t believe it,” Emily squeaked, slowly getting excited. “It’s actually them!” She took a deep breath, trying to press down her excitement. She gained a straight face, but her eyes sparkled with joy. This was amazing!

“Now who are you two?” Skipper asked.

Before the girls could answer, the rustling in the bushes made everyone freeze. They all looked over to see what it was; then a voice rang out. “I saw it coming from over here, Maurice,” a voice that Emily recognized immediately said.

Julien appeared, and Emily had to suppress a squeal. Jasmine nudged her and rolled her eyes at her friend’s expression. Emily leaned closer to her and said quietly,” Don’t pretend you’re not excited about seeing Rico.”

Jasmine blinked in faint surprise. Honestly, she hadn’t even realized that Rico was there. She turned her gaze to the psychotic penguin and felt a smile creeping up on her new beak. Emily laughed, which caused Jasmine to huff in irritation. “Whatever,” she muttered. She wasn’t a big fan of the show, but she always wanted to befriend the crazy bird because he was mentally unstable, kinda like her.

“What are you doing here, Ringtail?” Skipper asked, annoyance in his voice. He folded his flippers behind his back, warily watching King Julien.

“I’m here to be proving to Maurice about the purple swirly thingy in the sky.” Julien twirled a finger in the air. Maurice and Mort came out from the bush at that time. “And I wanted to be showing him that things fell from where the Sky Spirits are from!”

Maurice groaned quietly and rolled his eyes. He thought Julien had completely lost it.

“Those ‘things’ were these two females,” Kowalski said with air quotes and pointed at the two girls.

The lemurs turned to them. Julien’s eyes widening with delight. “Oh yes, another lemur to add to my kingdom,” he said happily, totally ignoring the penguin beside her. “And a pretty lemur for once!”

Emily almost melted and offered a wide grin to Julien. Jasmine rolled her eyes again at the expression on her friend’s face. They both hastily composed themselves when the penguins’ and lemurs’ gazes swept upon them again. They fidgeted uncomfortably at the stares.

“Who are you two anyway and what’s your business?” Skipper question, suspicion in his voice.

Jasmine gave a nervous smile.  _ Oh no, not his paranoia, _ she thought, remembering how Emily had told her that the lead penguin was always suspicious about something. “Uh… that’s classified,” she said, slightly hesitant on her part. Emily knew that was a mistake even before looking at the leader, seeing the suspicion in his eyes deepen.

“What are your names and why are you here?” Skipper demanded again. Jasmine looked over at her best friend for help.

“Just tell him,” Emily whispered to Jasmine.

The female penguin nodded and looked back at Skipper. “I’m Jasmine and this here is Taylor.” She chuckled nervously, rubbing the back of her head.

Emily glared at her friend. “I told you not to ever call me that” she snapped in an upset tone. She turned back to the penguins and lemurs. “Call me Emily.”

“Emily.” Julien cocked his head slightly to the side in thought, gazing up at the sky. “Emily,” he repeated, rolling the name on his tongue a few more times. “That… sounds… so… familiar…”

Skipper continued to glare at the two female animals, ignoring Julien’s comment.

“What?” Jasmine grunted crossly, irritated at his stare.

“Why are you here?” he demanded.

“Well…” The avian tapped her beak. What could they tell them? She exchanged a quick glance with Emily.

“We are from the city,” Emily answered quickly.

Skipper’s glare hardened. “Nagatory, we saw you two fall from the sky.” Lies weren’t going to get past him.

“I saw it with my own eyes!” Julien pointed to his eyes for emphasis.

The two exchanged another glance and sighed. “Alright, we aren’t from the city,” Emily admitted reluctantly.

“Well, in a way we are,” Jasmine put in. “We  _ are _ from New York.” Just stay as close to the truth to avoid too many lies.

“Just from another universe. We don’t know how we got here.” Emily shrugged and chuckled nervously, hoping that the penguins wouldn’t think she was lying or trying to hide something.

“Well except for the fact that a TV sucked us in, which was pretty cool!” Jasmine exclaimed, throwing her flippers up.

“You two are from another universe?” Kowalski asked, a hint of excitement tingling in his voice.

“Yes,” they both responded.

Kowalski fist pumped his flippers. “Yes! This is a perfect way to study how universal travel affects animals! I need to do some tests and see if there are any side effects though…” He tapped the tip of his beak in thought. Skipper gave him a disapproving glare.

“Believe me, there are definitely some side effects.” Jasmine rolled her eyes. Emily elbowed her in the gut, making the female penguin yelp and rub her side. “What was that for?” she hissed, scowling.

“We don’t need them to know everything, you know,” Emily whispered to her, a bit mad herself.

Jasmine huffed and rubbed her bruised gut. It was enough she was already sore, she didn’t need to be elbowed in the gut too.

“We can’t take these two to our zoo.” Skipper crossed his flippers over his chest.

Private frowned slightly. “Skippah, perhaps we should take them back to the zoo.”

“Yeah, yeah!” Rico agreed.

Skipper glared at the two penguins. “They could be spies. I don’t trust anything that falls from the sky.”

“But Skipper, I really want to do some tests,” Kowalski pleaded to his leader. Emily and Jasmine exchanged nervous looks and gulped. Experiments with Kowalski meant bad news. Explosions, possible death and artificial flavors. It wasn’t completely ideal to their tastes.

Skipper, sensing their discomfort about being tested on, seemed to have a ‘change of heart’. “Alright fine, you can do some tests on them. Do whatever you want with them. I’m sure they can handle it.” He chuckled, eyeing them with a hint of smugness.

Jasmine glared at the lead penguin, while Emily seemed a bit nervous about the testing to come. Though, they both scowled in his direction.

“So I will be getting a new subject for my kingdom, yes?” Julien asked hopefully, clasping his paws together.

“I wouldn’t mind being one,” Emily said under her breath.

Skipper ignored Julien’s question. “Alright boys, let’s go,” he commanded. They nodded and started waddling back to the zoo with the lemurs trailing behind. Skipper looked over his shoulder, seeing the two female animals still sitting on the ground with wide eyes. “Are you two coming?” he asked them loudly.

The two looked at each other. Normally, Emily would have been excited about seeing the zoo and would have jumped at the chance but they both were faintly hesitant, considering that Kowalski was going to do tests on them. Who wouldn’t be if they knew they might blow up?

“I guess since we’re here, I kinda want to see the zoo in person,” Jasmine told her friend.

“I do too, but what if Kowalski kills us with his inventions? They go horribly wrong most of the time.” Emily then laughed quietly and corrected herself. “Well, all the time.” She looked serious again. “Which is why it’s a bad idea!”

Jasmine waved her flipper in a dismissive manner. “Ah, we’ll be fine. Besides, it’d give you a chance to hang out with Julien.”

Emily instantly brightened up at the idea. “Let’s go!” she squealed.

Jasmine laughed lightly and stood up with the female lemur. They both followed the penguins and lemurs, catching up as quickly as possible. Emily immediately swerved around and went over to Julien for some small chit-chat. It had been a dream of hers for as long as she could remember. “Hi, Julien,” she said, grinning.

Julien turned his head toward her and smiled. “Hello, pretty lemur. Would you like to be seeing my kingdom once the silly penguins are done with whatever they are to be doing?” he asked her.

Emily felt a rush of excitement. “Of course!” she replied.

Jasmine rolled her eyes and decided to see if she could get some words out of the penguins. She made her way to the commandos and moved to Rico’s side. “Hey.” She waved.

Rico glanced at her quickly and gave her a brief nod, as if he was strictly on business, before turning his gaze back in front of him. Jasmine felt a trickle of mild disappointment. That didn’t go as expected. She waddled back to her friend’s side, trying not to interrupt Emily’s and Julien’s conversation.

“Here we are,” Skipper announced, standing in front of the zoo gates. He jumped off the walls of the arch and propelled himself upward until he landed on top of the clock tower. Emily and Jasmine were completely in awe to say the least, if not a bit jealous.

“That’s even more awesome in person,” Jasmine whispered to Emily. The brown lemur nodded in agreement.

“Kowalski, Rico, help the ladies up,” Skipper ordered from the clock tower as Private did the same thing his leader did, while the lemurs climbed the tower on all fours.

Jasmine yelped in surprise when Rico grabbed her and slung her over his shoulder. Emily was equally startled when Kowalski did the same with her.

The penguins jumped against the wall, copying Skipper’s movements until they made it to the top. They didn’t stop there and jumped down onto the other side with the others following closely.

Roughly, Emily was dropped onto the ground along with Jasmine.

“Not cool, pal!” Jasmine pointed a flipper at the snickening Rico.

“Stop messing around,” Skipper ordered as he passed by.

Emily and Jasmine got up and brushed themselves off, following the animals to the penguin habitat. Emily felt rising excitement as they approached, and even Jasmine was beginning to like this. This was like a dream coming true for Emily. She was going to see the HQ in person!

They attempted to hurtle over the habitat fence, almost falling into the water, but they managed to make it to the island without getting wet. Skipper pushed the fishbowl aside and everyone jumped in, even the lemurs, who Skipper didn’t normally approve coming in but he wasn’t in the mood to argue with them at the moment.

The two friends jumped in excitedly, but tried not to show it. Once their feet hit the ground, they took in the sight of the HQ: The penguins’ bunks, refrigerator, clock. T.V., table, and Kowalski’s lab door; it was all there.

“This is exactly how I pictured it,” Jasmine whispered to Emily, and she remembered all the times her friend made her watch the show.

“Me too,” Emily whispered back, agreeing silently that this was the best thing ever.

The young private waved his flippers out in a gesture. “Welcome to our HQ,” he said.

Both girls smiled. This was going to be a lot of fun.

* * *

**Coney Island**

Blowhole watched the monitors closely. There wasn’t a sign of anything new in New York, at least to what he was looking for. The wait was getting tiresome for the mad dolphin. Patience was not one of his strong suits. “Anything?” he asked irritably at the lobsters.

“Sorry boss, we got nothing,” one lobster answered.

“Oh hang on,” another lobster spoke up. “The penguins just came into their HQ with the lemurs, and wow! They got two new animals with them.”

“Two?” Blowhole questioned. “Zoom in a little.” The lobster did what he was told and zoomed in. It was a female penguin and lemur. “Turn on the audio,” he ordered. The lobster pressed a button and voices filled the room.

“Trust me on this one, Private,” Skipper told the young penguin from a corner in the room. “They have to be spies.”

“Skippah, you’re just being paranoid,” Private denied. “I believe we can trust these two.”

“I’m going to make sure I keep an eye on them,” Skipper said. “I’ll get a man on it.”

“Should we change to a different part of the HQ?” the lobster asked.

“Get close enough so we can hear those females,” Blowhole ordered. The lobster did what he was instructed to do. The screen flicked to the cluster of animals, consisting of Kowalski, Rico, the lemurs, and the females.

“So what was it like traveling through to this universe?” Kowalski asked.

Blowhole grew curious and leaned in a bit so he wouldn’t miss what they were talking about. Maybe… just maybe, it was those humans he had lost. A mutation to make them look like animals? Perfect.

“Painful,” the female penguin answered. “Really, really painful.”

“But it was so amazing, too!” the female lemur said in an excited tone. “It was like we were flying!”

“Flying?” Julien interjected. “Flightless birds can not fly. Neither can us lemurs… Maurice, make a note to get the smarty penguin to make us fly.”

“It was universal traveling… thing.” The female penguin scratched her head, looking confused.

Blowhole let a smug smile form on his feathers. “We found our humans,” he crackled in evil laughter.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

Emily watched as Kowalski walked into his lab, reappearing a moment later with a heap of machines in his flippers. He threw them down in the middle of the room and then turned to the female animals, grinning. Jasmine and Emily glanced at each other. They knew exactly what was about to happen, and both of them were scared. They knew how bad Kowalski’s experiments were capable of going. There was no way they would allow him to do tests on them, but they had no choice.

Emily glanced at Skipper on the other side of the room, talking to Private. The leader would turn his gaze on the new animals every few seconds, obviously talking about them. Emily knew very well that he didn’t trust them one bit. That was alright, though. Emily didn’t trust or liked him either.

“Alright now,” Kowalski said, his grin growing bigger. “Who wants to go first?”

As soon as he said that, Jasmine pushed her friend forward. “She does! I’m out!” Then the female penguin started to make a run for the ladder. But before she got half way across the lair, Rico appeared in front of her. She couldn’t slow down in time and slammed right into him. They fell to the floor, Jasmine landing on top of Rico. He hastily pushed her off and grabbed her flipper, pulling her back to Kowalski.

“Oh, come on,” the strategist said, picking up one of his inventions.

Emily looked at it curiously. The main body of it was a blender, and bolts and nuts tightened down soda bottles and metal to the machine. Half of a hose was sticking out of the blender and a box was at the end of the hose.

“It won’t hurt,” he added, taking a screwdriver and starting to screw in a bolt that seemed to be loose. When it was good and tight, he threw the tool aside. “Alright. Now let’s—“ Just then the invention started smoking, and suddenly it blew up right in Kowalski’s flippers. The tall penguin was covered in smut, and, when he coughed, a puff of smoke escaped his mouth. Then he fell backwards.

Jasmine started laughing hysterically, falling onto her back in her fit, and smacked her flipper on the ground repeatedly. Emily saw that she was laughing so hard that her friend was unable to breath. The female lemur rolled her eyes. Her friend had always found it hilarious when one of Kowalski’s inventions blew up while they watched the Penguins of Madagascar. But Emily was staring at the tall penguin, who still laid on the ground, staring up at the ceiling with wide eyes. She blinked a few times.  _ That could have been me or Jasmine, _ she thought, gulping.

Emily began to walk over to the female penguin, and she passed the lemurs, noticing that they were all looking questioningly at Jasmine. As she went by Julien, she whispered to him,” Don’t take any notice of Jasmine. She’d laugh at more serious things.” The ring tailed lemur smiled at Emily, and suddenly she felt like her legs wouldn’t hold her up anymore. But she forced herself to walk over to her friend, who was still laughing. Even though she couldn’t see Julien’s expression anymore, she kept replaying that moment again and again in her head. She had always loved the way he smiled and laughed and talked and danced and…well everything he did.

Finally, Emily got to Jasmine and the lemur helped her to her feet, motioning to her to calm down. At first the penguin ignored her best friend, but when she was desperate for air, she forced herself to stop laughing, and took in a big breath and let it out. She was still laughing a little, but eventually she stopped.

Emily glanced at Kowalski, who still laid on the floor, stunned. After another moment or two, he pushed himself up and wiped the soot off his face. Again, he coughed up smoke. “That wasn’t supposed to happen,” he said in a rasping voice. He crouched in front of his machine and started going through the destroyed pieces. “I don’t understand what went wrong,” he muttered to himself, but Emily felt the need to say something anyways.

“Your inventions usually don’t work,” the female lemur pointed out, shrugging. “So it’s not really a surprise that this one blew up.”

“But it was hilarious!” Jasmine added, laughing under her breath.

On the other side of the lair, Skipper was starting to get upset with Private, who kept insisting that Emily and Jasmine were harmless. The leader didn’t believe anything the young penguin was saying. He still didn’t trust these new animals one bit. But he trusted the lemur less. Getting to know Julien and his subjects have made Skipper dislike all lemurs. There was a better chance he would get to like Jasmine more, since she was the same species as him.

“Private, this is the last time I’m going to say it: Those two are spies,” Skipper said slowly, hoping to get the young recruit to understand. Private shook his head, in what Skipper thought to be denial.

“Sorry, Skippah, but I really think they’re harmless,” Private said with innocent eyes. “They don’t look like they can cause any real harm. They were willing to be tested on by Kowalski, so they must be—“

“Spies coming here to steal our weapons and secrets, I know, I know,” Skipper interrupted. He looked over and saw Emily looking at him before snapping her gaze to her friend, who Kowalski was putting a helmet over her head. It wasn’t long before he did the same with Emily.

“But Skippah—“ Private tried again, but his leader interrupted him again.

“Don’t worry, young private.” Skipper patted his head. “I got it all under control. You’re dismissed.”

“But—“

“Dismissed,” Skipper ordered sternly. Private sighed in defeat and waddled over to the others. Skipper watched him walk away, and then he turned his gaze to his weapons expert. “Rico!” he barked out, and the penguin rushed over and smiled slightly at his leader, tongue lolling out. “I have a job for you.”

“Job?” Rico inquired, cocking his head to the side in curiosity.

“I need you to keep an eye on this penguin, named supposedly ‘Jasmine’. Can you do that?”

“Uh huh.” Rico nodded. He then looked at his leader curiously. “Emily?”

“What? Oh, the lemur.” Skipper rubbed the bottom of his beak with his flipper. He looked around and spotted Mort. The mouse lemur was staring angrily at Emily, who was talking joyfully to King Julien. Skipper slowly smiled. “I got another man on it.”

Rico shrugged, not knowing what that meant, and went back to where Kowalski was, curious to see what he had planned next.

Skipper waddled over to the small lemur and pulled him aside. Mort looked angry and had his arms crossed his chest, narrowing his eyes at Emily.

“I don’t like girl lemur,” Mort mumbled.

“Neither do I,” Skipper admitted, folding his flippers behind his back. “Which is why I have a job for you, Sad Eyes.”

Mort brightened up. “Does it involve getting rid of that lemur?”

Skipper was surprised at his eagerness to get rid of her, but he pushed that feeling away. “No, not yet at least. I need you to spy and keep a close eye on her, got it?” Skipper said slowly, so it would sink into the lemur’s small brain.

“Yes,” Mort said with a vacant look in his eyes.

Skipper gave him a doubtful look before scowling at him. “Do you understand?”

“Yes,” Mort repeated.

Skipper still looked doubtful but before he could say any more the fishbowl slid away and the otter known as Marlene came in.

Marlene smiled widely when she saw the two female animals but frowned when she noticed that they were attached to one of Kowalski’s machines. “Don’t tell me that you’re testing on two new animals?” she asked, smacking her paw against her face. “Can’t one animal join the zoo without having to deal with your psycho procedures?”

“I’ll let you know that these animals won’t be staying for very long,” Skipper said to her smugly.

“We don’t have anywhere else to go.” Emily frowned while attempting to take the helmet off her head.

“Can’t you let us stay?” Jasmine asked, lifting the helmet over her eyes. She didn’t really want to stay anywhere near the penguins, but she knew her friend was right; they had nowhere else to go.

“The pretty lemur can be staying in my habitat,” Julien popped into the conversation.

“Whoa, whoa, they’re not staying here,” Skipper said sternly.

Marlene scowled and stalked towards him.

“Why can’t they stay here?” Marlene asked, frowning.

Skipper leaned over to her and whispered,” They’re spies. Can’t you see it?”

The otter backed away and frowned at him. “Come on, Skipper, let them stay. I want some other girls here, cause being virtually the only girl in the zoo isn’t as great as you would think. What’s the harm anyways?”

“Well—“ Kowalski started and he accidentally pressed a button on the machine that was wired up to Emily and Jasmine. They were both electrocuted instantly, glowing blue as sparks flew off them. Kowalski shouted in panic and frantically started to try to press the off button, but it didn’t stop until he pressed it at least twenty times. It finally ceased the fortune but resulting in them having a ring of smoke surrounding them.

Jasmine sniffed the air and commented,” I smell chicken.” Her eyes rolled backwards and she fell on her back, down for the count. Emily coughed out a plume of smoke before falling forward on her face, also knocked out.

Kowalski grinned nervously. “Accidents,” he chuckled. “Am I right?”

Skipper turned his gaze back to Marlene. “As you can see, we just can’t trust them.” He gestured to the burnt females. Honestly, it was more on the lines that the girls couldn’t trust the commando team of penguins.

The Asian otter clasped her paws together. “Please, Skipper,” Marlene pleaded.

“No,” the flat-headed penguin answered firmly.

Marlene put on the cutest face she could and pleaded,” Pretty please, Skipper.”

“Marlene, you know we… can’t… have…” Skipper trailed off as he stared at Marlene’s adorable face. He felt himself getting flustered as he continued to stare, getting hot underneath his feathers. Before he could stop himself, he agreed,” Alright, alright Marlene. But I’m ready to say I told you so when we find out they’re spies.”

Marlene brightened up and smiled widely. “Finally! At last there will be more girls to talk to.” She eyed the girls, brief concern flashing across her face. “Uh, when they wake up. Well later, I have to go before Alice notices I’m gone.”

Skipper sighed as Marlene left. When he turned back, everyone was giving him a funny look. “What?” He glared, oblivious.

Emily raised her head and coughed out smoke. “What happened?” she asked, a bit dazed, rubbing the back of her head.

The private began a recap for her. “Kowalski tested an invention on you and Jasmine, electrocuting you both, and then—“ Private started to explain before Rico jumped in. The psychotic penguin made wild gestures before falling onto the ground, pretending to be unconscious. “Yeah that,” Private finished.

Emily shot up instantly and glared at Kowalski, boiling. And it wasn’t just because her skin and fur got fried from the invention. “You electrocuted us?” she yelped. “What would that even accomplish?” she hollered. “What kind of test is that?” In simple terms, she was outraged.

Jasmine heaved herself up, looked around lazily, a bit dazed and asked,” What happened?”

“Kowalski shocked us!” Emily answered angrily.

Jasmine narrowed her eyes and stood up. “That hurt, you know!” She crossed her flippers over her chest, seething with anger as she glowered.

“That’s it! We’re going to show you why no one ever messes with us!” Emily stomped over to the scientist, Jasmine right behind her.

Kowalski backed away in fear. “Please, not the brain!” He hunched over as the girls drew closer. “For the sake of Isaac Newton, make it quick!”

Skipper had enough. “Rico, Private, stop the females!” he ordered.

Rico shot over and restrained Jasmine, while Emily was restrained by Private. “Let me go!” The lemur thrashed in Private’s flippers.

“I just want to punch him!” Jasmine growled, trying to escape Rico’s grip.

Skipper glared at them. If they were trying to prove that they weren’t spies, they were failing miserably. After a while of shouting and struggling, the two girls finally relaxed enough to the point where they wouldn’t want to cause Kowalski too much bodily harm. For the time being.

“Alright, we won’t hurt him. Can you please let us go now?” Emily groaned.

“Can we let them go, Skippah?” Private asked. Skipper sighed reluctantly but signaled for Rico and Private to release them.

Emily mumbled,” Thanks.” She stood up with Jasmine, brushing themselves off.

Private made a quick apology, then decided to give Emily some good news, seeing that she still looked pretty upset. “Skippah said that you two get to stay in the zoo,” he whispered to the female lemur.

“Really?” Jasmine asked, surprised, overhearing him. Private nodded in confirmation. Jasmine grinned while Emily looked confused.

Emily asked curiously,” What changed his mind?”

“Marlene,” Rico laughed, smirking slyly.

Jasmine joined in on his laughter and added quietly to Emily,” So the rumor must be true.” Her friend had told her several times that the two characters made a perfect couple and a lot of fans agreed.

The brown lemur grinned, knowing fully well what her friend meant.  _ Skilene, _ she thought.  _ So it must be true. _

“Alright lemur.” Skipper pointed at Emily. “You’re going to be staying with Ringtail.” Emily suppressed the rising joy in her. She was going to stay with Julien! “You,” he said, pointing at Jasmine,” will be staying with us, but I’m watching you.”

_ Oh boy, _ Jasmine thought, slumping.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

“Come on, pretty lemur,” Julien whispered in Emily’s ear. “I’ll show you my kingdom.”

Emily suddenly felt excited and she nodded eagerly, wanting to see the lemur habitat in person, even though she didn’t expect it to look any different than it did on TV. She followed Julien up the ladder and fell in behind the king as he began to walk off; Maurice ran to catch up to them when he noticed that they were leaving.

But Mort stayed where he was for a moment. He glanced at Skipper, who dipped his head a tiny bit. Then the small lemur got a determined look on his face and began to run after the other lemurs, but he tripped on one of Kowalski’s inventions, causing him to fall on his head.

The penguins winced and looked away, but they turned back when they heard Mort laughing.

“That was fun!” he cheered, jumping to his feet. “I want to do that again!”

Shaking his head, Skipper wondered if he made the right choice, trusting Mort to spy on that female lemur. The leader walked over to him and whispered,” Don’t forget your mission.”

“You mean spying on that lemur?” Mort asked, putting his head to one side.

Skipper nodded, and Mort saluted, then began to run over to the ladder, climbing it. But he lost his balance and one of his feet slipped out from under him, causing him to fall back to the floor, hitting his head on one of the bars. Skipper sighed, shaking his head. Then Mort jumped back to his feet, running up the ladder and disappearing topside.

The little lemur joined the others as they jumped out of the penguin habitat, heading toward their own home. He kept glancing at Emily, who was talking to Julien. Mort really wasn’t concerned what they were talking about; he just wanted to get that female lemur away from  _ his _ king!

Without thinking, Mort dashed forward, thrusting his way in between the new lemur and Julien. He smiled up at his king and asked in a pleading tone,” Can I touch the royal feet?” He wanted to at least distract King Julien.

“No!” the king answered angrily, and looked down at Mort, eyes blazing. “How many times do I have to tell you not to be touching the royal feet!”

Mort’s eyes started watering, and he let out a small whimper.

“I have an idea how you could stop him,” Emily spoke up, and Mort glanced at her, anger replacing the sadness he felt about Julien’s rejection. She was about to suggest something to the king that would stop Mort from touching the feet!

“How?” Julien sounded confused but curious.

Emily moved closer to him and whispered in his ear, so that the others couldn’t hear her. “Pretend you like me. He’ll be too busy hating me that he won’t bother you anymore.”

Julien blinked in surprise. Then he smiled as he thought that could work. He nodded and wrapped his tail around Emily, who almost melted under his touch. This plan could benefit both of them. The king pushed Emily onward toward his habitat, ignoring the mouse lemur.

Mort couldn’t move from the spot Julien left him; he stared after his king and the female lemur, eyes as large as possible and mouth opened in a silent gasp as he watched Julien pull Emily even closer to him. Anger suddenly overtook Mort, too powerful even for him. “That lemur will pay,” he whispered to himself.

But Maurice, who was walking by, overhead him, and the aye-aye turned to him. “‘She’s no threat,” he assured the little lemur. “She just likes… Julien.” He blinked, wondering why Emily seemed to like the king so much… wondering how anyone could have feelings for him.

_ Of course she doesn’t know the real him, since she’s from a completely different universe, _ Maurice realized as he followed his king and the female lemur. But he knew she’ll discover the true him— selfish and entitled and spoiled— and most likely would end up hating him. He sighed and looked down at the ground as he walked.

It was a few moments until Mort finally joined them in the lemur habitat. When he got there, he saw Julien pointing to his throne, telling Emily,” And this is my throne, where I sit and carry out my kingly things.”

Emily had a smile on her face as she listened to the king go on and on about everything inside his kingly habitat, nodding along.

Mort stood on the platform, arms crossed as he glared at Emily, not trusting her one bit. He just had a feeling there was something off about her; something that’s not right. And he was determined to let that side of her come out, to let everyone see the real her. Mort was sulking as he stared at the two lemurs, feeling completely left out as they walked off together to the other side of the habitat.

Skipper’s words echoed in his ears:  _ I need you to spy and keep a close eye on her. _ He would do anything that would get rid of that female lemur and to have Julien all to himself again.

* * *

Jasmine frowned as her best friend left with the other lemurs. She wasn’t really sure if she was happy to hang with the penguins or not. She’s seen enough episodes to know when they were suspicious of someone, they were unpredictable. And to be fair, she wasn’t a big fan of surprises. Though she did appreciate the extra spice it would give life.

Jasmine looked at the penguins staring at her with different emotions. An awkward atmosphere settled in. She shifted the weight on her feet, rocking back and forth, and pretended there was something interesting on the ground. Normally, she would be more blunt with everything, but it just felt a bit too awkward for her liking. Surely there was one of them that trusted her besides Private?

“So… Skipper, Kowalski, Private, and Rico, right?” she asked, knowing completely well who they were and their names, thanks to Emily. But keeping up the oblivious act was necessary or they would think she was a spy.

“Yes,” Skipper confirmed, eyeing her suspiciously like she was going to pull off an attack.

Jasmine stopped rocking but looked around slowly. “So, can I see the zoo or what?” she asked bluntly, just wanting to try to distract them and hopefully get away from the awkwardness.

“No,” Skipper replied immediately.

Jasmine crossed her flippers over her chest and raised a non-existent brow. “Well then, would you like to show me everything in here?” She gestured around the penguin lair. “I’m pretty sure there are some interesting things behind that door.” She pointed to Kowalski’s lab, smirking. “And what do those buttons do?” she asked with fake curiosity, remembering it was the security measures. She grinned at the look Skipper gave her.

The leader scowled but gave in. “Fine, we’ll show you the zoo.”

Jasmine smiled in triumph. “Would you believe this is the first time I’ve even been in a zoo?”

“Really?” Private inquired. “You’ve never been in a zoo?”

Jasmine shook her head. “Nah, I haven’t been to too many places. I would like to though!”

“Why haven’t you?” the young penguin asked.

“Complicated reasons.” Jasmine twirled her flippers around, looking up at the ceiling. She couldn’t tell them that she had been human. Who knows what would happen then? Besides, she wanted to savor her time in this new world. Then again, this could have only made Skipper more suspicious. “So can we go now?” she asked.

“Uh, fine,” Skipper groaned.

Jasmine grinned and started to climb the ladder. She reached the top and looked around carefully. She flinched when the penguins jumped out of the hole. “I wish I could do that,” she muttered to herself. They jumped over the habitat bars and Jasmine could only watch in awe. She never realized how cool it looked until she saw it in person. Jumping penguins. If only…

The female penguin went to the edge of the concrete island and braced herself. She jumped over the bars and landed clumsily on her stomach on the other side. “Ow,” she moaned. Jasmine glared when the penguins tried not to laugh at her, but they were failing miserably, making her grumble under her breath. She stood up crossly and growled sarcastically,” Yes, very funny! Laugh it up!”

“I’m sorry,” Private apologized, trying his best not to laugh.

Jasmine rolled her eyes. “Can we just see the zoo now?” She ground her beak together.

Skipper composed himself and stood up straight. “Right… Kowalski?”

Kowalski whipped out a map and started scanning it.

Jasmine’s look turned pensive as she thought about how he did that. It might have been a simple show but it puzzled her. She rubbed her temple; she was thinking too much about it. Just go with it and avoid the big questions.

“We could go to the Rhino’s habitat first.” Kowalski pointed to it. He began to plan out their entire zoo tour, saying everywhere they were going to go way too fast for Jasmine to process. By the time he was done, all she could say was,” Wait, what?”

“We’re going to see Roy first,” Private explained.

Jasmine snorted. Roy the rhino, remembering Emily telling her about him.  _ Interesting species, _ she thought. She preferred reptiles, but everything else was fine to her. “Then let’s go!” She threw her flippers up enthusiastically. “Wait, when will we see the lemurs?”

Kowalski looked at the map before responding,” That’ll be our last stop.”

“Why?” Jasmine sighed in disappointment and brought her flippers back down to her sides.

“Because they were aggravating,” Skipper growled.

“Bah.” Jasmine waved a dismissive flipper and stepped over to the penguins. “Emily’s fine.”

“I won’t take any chances.” Skipper glared at her.

She blew the feather bang that was covering her eye away. “Well, lead the way, O bossy one.” Jasmine smirked when Skipper’s eye twitched. She followed the penguins to the rhino habitat, grinning broadly.

* * *

“And this is my bouncy,” Julien announced, pointing to the inflatable thing that had the head of a lemur wearing a crown, just like the king himself.

Emily had to hold back an excited squeak as she tilted her head back so she could look at the whole bouncy. She jumped from foot to foot, forcing herself not to dash forward and start bouncing on the inflatable castle. She had always wanted to do that, and, now that the bounce castle was here in front of her, she had to use all her strength to stand beside Julien, looking at the bouncy in pure awe.

Out of the corner of her eye, Emily saw the king glance at her, a smile on his face. “You know,” he began,” I haven’t bounced all day. Want to join me?” He gestured to the bouncy, and Emily felt a bolt of joy. The male ring-tailed lemur’s request had just added onto her dream. She had always imagined herself bouncing beside the king, holding hands with him, looking him in the eyes as they went up and down. Now that daydream was about to become reality!

Unable to speak, Emily just nodded her head. Julien held out his hand, offering it to Emily, who took it, literally almost melting under his touch. She scarcely realized it when Julien started pulling her to the bouncy. She almost tripped over her own feet, and she shook her head to clear it and focus on where she was going.

Julien helped her onto the bouncy, and, once she was on it, they started jumping up and down. Emily, who was a little way from the king, was having trouble staying up straight and aiming her next bounce; she landed right on her stomach a few times and, every time she did, Julien would let out a small chuckle. Then the king slowed down, grabbing the female lemur by both of her hands.

“Jump with me,” he whispered to her, starting to bounce again. Emily went up and down with him, holding on tight to his hands as if her life depended on it. She was staring into the king’s yellow eyes, hardly noticing that she was still going up and down. The few times she’s been on a bouncy, she got sick, moving so much constantly. But when she was looking at Julien, it was as if all problems in the world melted away.

She wasn’t sure how much time went by, until finally Julien stopped jumping. “Come on,” he said when Emily managed to stop as well. “Maybe we could have a mini party to celebrate your arrival.”

Another bolt of joy hit Emily. Julien was going to have a party, just for her! She nodded eagerly, and Julien took a hold of her hand, half-dragging, half-pulling the female lemur behind him. They jumped onto the platform, and Emily looked up at the throne; she had to narrow her eyes to abject to the sun beaming behind the tall chair. Emily watched as the king dashed over to his stereo, pushing a button. Music started playing as soon as he pressed it.

Emily let out a small laugh when Julien started dancing, heading toward her. She suddenly felt a rush of horror when he reached out his hand, offering her to dance with him. But she didn’t know how to dance. She was horrible at it! Every time she attempted to dance, she always tripped and fell, hurting herself. But she couldn’t say no to Julien. That was one of her weaknesses.

Swallowing back her fear, she grabbed his hand, and he started spinning her. Emily spun across the platform, tripping over her feet, causing her to fall on her stomach. She let out a soft groan, feeling the pain as sharp as a thorn.

Julien appeared by her side, crouching down. “Are you alright, pretty lemur?” he asked, sounding worried.

Emily pushed herself into a sitting position, rubbing her belly. “Yeah,” she replied. “I’m fine.”

“Good.” Julien sat in front of her, a thoughtful look coming into his eyes. “Wait a second,” he went on. “In the park, when that female penguin had called you Taylor, you snapped at her and said that you go by Emily.” He put his head to one side. “Why?”

Emily frowned and looked sideways at the throne. She had hoped nobody would have noticed that. The penguins didn’t seem that interested in knowing why she went by a completely different name.  _ What should I tell him? _ she wondered, forcing back a rush of panic.  _ Lie? No! _ she replied to herself in a fierce tone.  _ I could never lie to Julien! _

Taking a deep breath, she explained,” My legal name is Taylor, and I like that name and all but…” She let her voice trail off, glancing back at Julien. “But I started liking the name Emily, after I had… had made this character for one of my stories with the same name…”

Julien’s ears flicked up in surprise. “Stories? Character?” Now he sounded really interested in hearing the truth.

Emily sighed, knowing she had no choice but to confess everything to him, even though she knew Jasmine would be very upset with her when she found out what her friend was about to tell the king.

“Well, you already know that I’m from a different universe, but where I’m from, I’m a…” She swallowed hard and went on,” I’m a human, who writes stories, and I had created this character called Emily. She’s a ring tailed just like you except with green eyes, and she’s nice and brave and would never back down from a challenge.”

While she was speaking, Julien’s eyes grew bigger and bigger. “I knew a lemur like that!” Suddenly sadness entered his face. “But she’s back in Madagascar.”

Emily nodded, and wondered if this was taking place before her character Emily returned to Julien to ask for his help to save their beloved island. Sighing softly, Emily shook her head and stood up. “Enough talk,” she said. “Let’s try dancing again.”

Julien got up as well and nodded. “Alright, Emily.” He walked over to the female lemur and entwined his hands with hers.

“Oh, and Julien,” Emily added, looking at him seriously,” please don’t tell the penguins that me and Jasmine were humans in our universe.”

“Of course.” Julien pulled her closer to him and whispered in her ear,” Your secret is being safe with me.”

* * *

“I’m torn between feeling that Joey is cool and stupid at the same time,” Jasmine growled. “I can’t believe you actually pushed me in there!” She suddenly threw a glare at Skipper.

“I didn’t push you.” Skipper smirked, raising his flippers up in fake innocence. “You just so happened to be standing there when my flippers slipped.”

“Yeah, sure.” Jasmine rolled her eyes. “‘Slipped’”

“Why did you push her in there?” Private asked Skipper quietly, so Jasmine couldn’t hear.

“To see if she could fight or defend herself,” Skipper whispered back. He glanced back at the roughed up Jasmine. Her ebony feathers were ruffled in various places, possible bruises underneath them. “And apparently, she can’t.”

“Can we go to the lemurs now?” Jasmine asked crossly. “I want to see Emily.”

“It’s our next stop.” Kowalski pointed at the map. Rico looked at the piece of paper and grinned, tongue lolling out of his beak.

“Unfortunately, the nightmare begins. Let’s roll.” Skipper started belly sliding to the lemur habitat with his teammates close behind.

“I’ve always wanted to do this!” Jasmine grinned and started sliding on her stomach as well. She laughed as she did this. It was easier than she expected.

_ Now if only I can get one of their jet packs, _ Jasmine thought, smirking. Honestly, she didn’t believe she could do it right since she usually messed up everything she did.

Looking all around her, the female penguin approached the lemur habitat but barely noticed. She was so focused on her surroundings that she didn’t realize how fast she was going.

“Slow down!” she heard Skipper shout.

Jasmine finally looked at what was in front of her and saw the penguins standing there, waving for her to slow down. She was going to run into them if she didn’t slow down or if they didn’t move. She tried to swerve away but it was too late. She braced herself and slammed into Rico and Kowalski; Skipper and Private had managed to move just in time. They all slapped against the wall with a painful sounding smack.

“That’s going to hurt in the morning,” Private winced.

Rico fell onto his back and groaned in pain. “Owie,” he grunted.

Kowalski followed his example but became a bit over dramatic. “I think I broke something!”

Jasmine fell on her back too. “Sorry guys,” she apologized. “Note to self: pay attention to where I’m going.”

Skipper glared down at her and said,” No kidding, spy.”

“I’m not a dumb spy, alright?” Jasmine shouted and sat up. “I’m too clumsy to be one even if I wanted to be or was a spy!” Rico got up as well, along with Kowalski, and extended his flipper out to her. The frustrated avian took it and was lifted up by him, but she barely noticed. “Do I honestly look like a spy to you?” Jasmine crosses her flippers over her chest, daring him to answer.

Skipper looked her up and down quickly before responding,” Yes.”

Jasmine growled in frustration. “I just want to see Emily now.” She jumped on the wall but didn’t make it all the way. She caught her flippers on the edge of the wall and hauled herself up. She was immediately greeted with a sight of Julien and Emily dancing together.

She snickered at the sight when the other penguins came up on the wall as well. “Isn’t that just adorable?” She gestured to the two lemurs.

“Aw,” Private sighed and clapped. “They are!”

While those two were dancing, Maurice and Mort were nearby at the smoothie stand. Mort looked angry, while Maurice seemed generally calm.

“Hey, Emily!” Jasmine suddenly shouted. This gained Emily’s attention and she looked at her penguin friend, ceasing her dancing with Julien, who also stopped, disappointed. “How’s it going?” she called out.

“Just fine!” Emily shouted back but looked frustrated. Her annoyance with her interrupted time with Julien was noticeable on her expression.  _ Perfect timing, _ she thought sarcastically.

“Cool!” Jasmine and the other penguins jumped onto the concrete in front of Julien’s throne. She rushed over for a greeting, and Emily just then noticed how ruffled up she looked.

“What happened to you?” Emily asked.

“Long story short, Skipper pushed me into the kangaroo habitat, and Joey beat the crud out of me!” Jasmine threw her flippers around in wild gestures. “But it was still awesome at the same time! But I do not want to do that again.”

Emily looked at Skipper before looking back at her friend again. “He pushed you in?”

“Yes!” the female penguin threw her flippers up hysterically.

The brown lemur shook her head at her friend. “What am I going to do with you?”

Jasmine shrugged sheepishly in response. Emily’s eyes then went wide, which confused Jasmine. “What is it?” she asked. Emily turned her friend around and in that moment, panic ran through their veins.

“Alice!” Private yelped.


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**Blowhole’s lair**

Dr. Blowhole watched from the monitor as the lemurs left and the penguins soon after.

“So what now, Doc?” One of the lobsters snapped its claws.

“We need a way to take those humans,” Blowhole answered without taking his eyes off the screen. “The peng-u-ins must not be involved in this anymore than they already are.”

“Do you want to send in the ninja lobsters?” the red crustacean suggested. As it said that, three jumped out of the darkness and got into battle ready positions.

“No,” Dr. Blowhole growled in frustration. “In fact.” He smiled crookedly as an idea struck him. “I’m gonna pay the peng-u-ins a visit.”

* * *

**Central Park Zoo, lemur habitat**

As soon as Private alerted everyone, Emily felt someone pushing her to the edge of the platform, whispering in her ear,” Hide behind my bouncy. I’ll call you when the coast is being clear.”

_ Julien! _

She allowed the king to push her away, enjoying the feeling he sent through her just from his touch. But she nearly stumbled backwards when he suddenly let go of her. She just barely managed to catch herself.

Glancing back over her shoulder, Emily saw Julien running back to his subjects, while the penguins rushed past her, so fast that they knocked her off her feet. Panic struck her when she felt herself going over the platform’s edge. But something grabbed her just before she fell and pulled her back to safety.

She looked up and saw Jasmine holding onto her hand, a smile crossed her beak as she rolled her eyes playfully. “Watch where you’re going next time, would ya?” she teased gently.

But Emily still felt the need to defend herself. “It was those penguins’ fault that I almost fell!” She glanced over her shoulder at the ground below and saw Skipper looking up at the girls with a sparkle of mischief in his eyes. She then realized that almost knocking her over wasn’t an accident; he probably did it to show the females that he didn’t want them here.

_ For the last time, I am not a spy! _ she screamed in her head, frustrated.  _ And neither is Jasmine! We’re just a pair of girls who got stuck through a T.V.! _ But she knew she couldn’t convince the stubborn leader to see that. And besides, Emily had already told Julien who she and Jasmine really were. If she also told Skipper, it would just add onto his paranoia.

Jasmine, still holding onto Emily’s paw, jumped off the platform, landing lightly on the ground, though Emily couldn’t find her footing fast enough and slammed onto her stomach. She immediately jumped to her feet, ignoring the pain when she noticed that the four penguins were looking at her, forcing themselves not to laugh.

“It’s not funny!” she snapped, dusting the dirt out of her fur. “Would you like me to laugh when you get hurt?”

Private instantly looked guilty. “I’m sorry, Emily,” he said, glancing down at his feet, shifting them. Kowalski and Rico murmured their own half hearted apologies.

But Skipper just rolled his eyes and growled,” Let’s get into cover before Alice sees us.”

“Do you think we should go back to our own habitat?” Kowalski asked, following his leader when Skipper began to walk to the bouncy. But when the tall penguin said that, he came to a halt and turned to him. His eyes shined with confusion, and Emily wondered what was distracting him so much that he couldn’t give out the right orders. On the show, he usually could stay focused enough to tell his team what to do. Unless something was on his mind.

Emily narrowed her eyes and thought:  _ He’s probably still worrying about me and Jasmine. What’s it going to take to assure him that we’re no threat? _

Skipper nodded. “Right,” he murmured. He glanced at Emily and added,” You stay here.”

“Of course.” Emily rolled her eyes. “I know that. I’m not going to follow you, trust me. I can think of ten things better than following you.”

The hard look the flat-headed penguin gave her suddenly made Emily wish she hadn’t said that. But she wasn’t about to show that she was scared of Skipper, so she held her chain high and crossed her arms. Besides, Jasmine found it amusing.

But Skipper said nothing else to Emily. Instead, he turned to his team and Jasmine. “Alright, let’s get back to our habitat,” he ordered.

Instantly, his team fell in behind him as he began to walk away. But Jasmine stayed where she was, glancing at Emily.

“You should go with them,” Emily whispered to her friend.

Jasmine sighed and nodded. “I know,” she murmured. “But I don’t want to leave you. And plus, Skipper is starting to freak me out.”

“Don’t worry about him.” Emily lightly put her hand on Jasmine’s shoulder, looking down into her eyes. “You know how he is. And as for not wanting to leave me…” She glanced back up at the platform, just catching a glimpse of Julien’s ring tail. “I’ll be fine,” she eventually went on, turning back to Jasmine. “And besides, the more time you spend with the penguins, the more time you spend with Rico.”

Jasmine still looked a little uneasy, and Emily added,” If you go, maybe they would allow you to eat some of their fish.” She knew that her friend was hungry, because of two reasons. One, they hadn’t eaten all day. And two, she was also sort of hungry.

Finally Jasmine nodded and agreed,” Alright but I’ll be back as soon as I can. Try to stay out of trouble for that long.” There was a teasing note to her voice as she nudged Emily, who decided to play along.

“Me?” Emily said innocently, blinking as if confused. “In trouble? Never!”

Jasmine rolled her eyes playfully, about to say something else, when a call near the wall sounded. “Come on, spy!” Skipper was standing beside the bouncy. “You can talk to your partner in crime later!”

Jasmine’s eyes flashed with annoyance, but, instead of saying anything harsh back, which Emily could see that she wanted to, she turned back to her friend and said,” I suppose I should go.”

They hugged, then Jasmine slid on her belly to Skipper. The two penguins then jumped over the wall. Emily guessed that the other three penguins had already left. Shrugging to herself, she walked over to the bouncy, sitting behind it, and leaning against it.

She glanced back at the platform as a voice just outside the habitat spoke. She immediately recognized it as Alice’s voice. It sounded as if the zookeeper was checking up on the lemurs, making sure they had enough food. Emily could just hear Julien commenting to Maurice that Alice needed to get fired, since she doesn’t seem to care at all about the animals of the zoo and that she always complained about them.

But she couldn’t hear Maurice’s reply.

Emily laughed quietly to herself. It was true. Sighing softly, she crossed her arms behind her head as she continued to lean on the bounce castle, putting one of her legs over the other, staring up at the sky. Smiling, she closed her eyes, trying to block out the sharp hunger in her stomach as she drifted into a deep sleep.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**Penguin Habitat**

When they got back into their habitat, Skipper ordered Jasmine to go inside while the others stayed on the island in case Alice walked by. The female penguin reluctantly did what he said, noticing the warning look he gave her. She pushed the fishbowl aside with her foot and started climbing down the ladder, making sure to push the bowl back in place.

Jasmine jumped off the ladder and looked around. Her eyes landed on the refrigerator, and her belly growled as if it remembered Emily telling her friend that the penguins might share some of their fish. She didn’t bother going back up to ask them; instead she waddled over there and opened the fridge.

After she ate enough fish to fill her up, Jasmine turned to look around at the HQ again. This time her sight found Kowalski’s lab door. She smirked as she walked over to it. She was curious to know what the tall penguin had invented, and she knew if the penguins were here, there was no way they’d let her in there.

_ Good thing they’re on the island, _ she thought as she opened the door.

She found herself looking into a smaller room with tons of inventions in it. Giggling to herself, Jasmine ran into the lab and started scanning around, wondering what she wanted to play with first. She made a mental note to not turn anything on, remembering that she could get seriously hurt if the invention blew up, which she was sure it’d do since Kowalski made it.

Jasmine ran over to a strange looking ray-gun. She picked it up and studied it. The end of it was made of a half bowling pen, and the other part of it kind of looked like a satellite; there was also a part of it sticking out that looked like a trigger from a toy gun.

She knew she shouldn’t try it in case it blew up, but she was too curious not to see what it did. She looked around and spotted a brown box on the other side of the room. She ran to it, pointed the ray-gun at it, and then she pulled the trigger.

She watched in amazement when the box grew smaller and smaller. She bent down to study it. “Wow!” she exclaimed out loud. “A shrink ray!”

Suddenly losing interest in the ray, she put it on the floor before running to another part of the lab, studying all of Kowalski’s inventions.

* * *

**Lemur Habitat**

Something was gently shaking Emily, waking her up. She blinked open her eyes; she forgot where she was for a moment and thought that maybe her mom was waking her up for school. Then she noticed warm yellow eyes staring down at her as the king smiled when he realized that she was awake, and it all came rushing back to her. She was in the Penguins of Madagascar world. Joy made her unable to sit still, and she jumped to her feet, smiling up at the lemur in front of her.

“Alice is gone,” Julien told her. “You can come out of hiding now.”

Emily nodded in understanding and started following the king, wondering how long she was asleep. She glanced up, realizing the sun barely moved in the sky. The zookeeper must not have stayed long and Julien seemed to have awoken her as soon as Alice was gone.

Then the brown lemur remembered her hollow belly, and she suddenly felt light headed from hunger. She stumbled a little, but something grabbed her before she fell to the ground. Glancing up, she saw Julien looking down at her with concern in his eyes.

“What’s wrong?” he asked anxiously.

Emily sat back down as she looked up at the king. “I’m hungry,” she told him a little shyly. “I haven’t eaten all day.” She glanced at the ground as she brushed her tail with her paws, and a moment later, she dared to look back up at him.

Julien seemed to understand and he nodded. “Wait here,” he said in a gentle tone, before dashing off to another part of the habitat.

As she sat on the ground, she spotted Mort glaring at her. She blinked in confusion, but right when she was about to call the mouse lemur over, Julien reappeared with a bowl of fruit. He sat it down beside Emily and said,” Here you go. Eat as much as your belly can handle.” He smiled down at Emily, making her feel hot under her fur.

She picked up a grape and ate it, still aware of Mort looking at her with hatred in his eyes, but she tried not to focus on him as she continued to eat. She was glad she was a lemur, because she knew if she had turned into a penguin, she’d rather starve before she tried eating fish. She hated the taste of fish and she especially hated the smell of fish.

A touch on her shoulder made Emily look up at the lemur king. “Can you be telling me more about your other universe?” Julien asked unexpectedly as he sat in front of Emily.

Emily swallowed the grape she had been chewing and blinked up at the king. “Why do you want to know about that?” she asked, not sure if she should tell him. She wished she had the chance to tell Jasmine that she had confessed to Julien that they were once humans, but she knew she couldn’t say that around the penguins. Then Alice’s sudden appearance cut the two friend’s reunion short.

Julien shrugged casually. “I’m being curious,” he said as he looked closer at Emily. “You were once really being a human? With no fur and everything you have now?”

Nodding slowly, Emily picked up another grape and ate it. She then began to tell the king about her life as a human, going to school and hanging with Jasmine whenever they had the chance. She wasn’t sure if she should tell Julien about him and the others being just a T.V. show in her world. She had mentioned her own character she had made and said that she looked like the lemur king, but Emily wasn’t sure if he picked up the idea that she knew about him before they entered this new universe where the lemurs and penguins were real.

As she explained her universe to Julien, Mort kept a close eye on them, but he didn’t really care what they were talking about. He could hardly hear from where he was; he did pick up a few things, like her going to school, and he told himself to remember that to tell Skipper. But truthfully, he was just finding pleasure in glaring at her and hating her.

Then he realized that Maurice appeared by his side. The aye-aye glanced at his king and the female lemur, before looking down at Mort. “You can give it a rest,” he told the little lemur. “She isn’t going to do anything bad. The strangest thing about her is her obsession with Julien.” He narrowed her eyes at the two lemurs. “I thought surely by now that she would start to hate him,” he murmured to himself. “Why is Julien being nice to her anyways? It’s strange…” But he just shrugged and walked away, forgetting all about Mort, who still glared at Emily.

“I do not like female lemur,” he grumbled as he crossed his arms angrily.

* * *

**With Blowhole**

When he finally got to the city, the dolphin looked around to find the quickest route to get to the zoo. He made sure to hide from all the passing humans as he rode down the street. He had ordered his lobsters to stay at their lair to keep an eye on the penguins’ HQ, but he had told them to get in contact with him as soon as someone enter the lair.

It wasn’t long after he arrived at the city that he got a video call on his scooter. He used his nose to answer it and a lobster popped up on the screen, snapping its claws, but it stopped when it realized that Blowhole had answered its call.

“What is it?” the evil dolphin demanded when the lobster didn’t speak. He felt frustration at his minion, but he tried to push the feeling away.

“That female penguin has entered the HQ,” the lobster reported, and an evil grin appeared on Blowhole’s face.

“What about Skipper and the other peng-u-ins?” he asked as he went down an alleyway to avoid being seen.

The lobster shrugged. “They didn’t follow her in,” it replied. “She went to Kowalski’s lab and hasn't reappeared yet.”

_ She must be curious, _ Blowhole thought to himself, and then he spoke to the lobster on the screen. “Keep an eye on the HQ and tell me if anything happens.”

“Okay, boss.” The screen turned to black as the lobster hung up.

Then Blowhole continued to make his way to the zoo. The park soon came into view, and he could just spot the brick wall of the Central Park Zoo. He smiled evilly as he thought:  _ I will get those humans back and carry on with my plan. _


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

Emily looked into Julien’s yellow eyes as he stared down at her, smiling. She felt hot under her fur, but she tried to ignore the feeling as she got to her feet. “Is Alice really gone?” she asked.

The ring-tailed lemur nodded and got up as well.

“Can we go see Jasmine?” Emily loved spending time with Julien, but she was starting to really miss her friend, and she was uncomfortable with the looks Mort was giving her.

It was a few moments until Julien replied, and Emily was worried he’d refuse. But finally the king nodded and said,” I guess we could be going to the penguins’ habitat.”

They began to walk toward the wall; Emily tried not to notice the glares the mouse lemur shot her. She wasn’t surprised when Mort ran to catch up to them, but Julien put out his paw to stop the little lemur. The king looked down at him. “Where do you think you are going?” he asked Mort, who smiled up at Julien.

“Please, can I come with you?” he begged, his eyes as huge and pleading as possible. Emily kind of felt sorry for him, despite his hatred of her.

Julien shook his head. “No,” he said firmly. “You have to stay here.”

Mort let out a small whimper and his eyes began to water. Julien sighed.

“Fine,” the king groaned as he turned his back on the mouse lemur. Then he said over his shoulder,” Bu if you touch the royal feets or annoy me any way whatsoever, I’m gonna send you straight back here.”

Instantly Mort cheered up and it looked like he was about to run to Julien’s feet, but he controlled himself. Emily giggled under her breath. Then she felt something reaching for her hand. She glanced down and saw Julien’s paw was intertwined with hers. Her legs suddenly felt like they wouldn’t hold her up anymore, but she forced them to start moving again as the king pulled her toward the wall that separated his kingly habitat from the rest of the zoo.

Mort stayed behind for a moment, glaring at the two as they left. Then he ran to catch up to them just as they hopped over the wall. He walked next to Julien, shooting glares at Emily, who wasn’t even paying any attention to the mouse lemur. She was smiling up at Julien as they talked. Mort didn’t care what they were saying; he only focused on his hatred of the female lemur.

When they finally arrived at the penguins’ habitat, Emily noticed the four flightless birds on their island, but she didn’t see her friend.  _ Maybe Jasmine’s inside, _ she thought as she hopped onto the gate and then landed on the island. Julien and Mort joined her.

Skipper glared at the lemurs. “What are you doing here?” he demanded as he walked over to them, and Emily sighed inwardly when she noticed his mistrust aimed toward her. She wished the lead penguin would just believe that she wasn’t a spy.

Before Emily could say anything, Julien told Skipper,” She wanted to see her friend.” Emily was glad the lemur king had spoken up. Skipper was starting to scare her, but she didn’t want to admit or let it show. She stood up straight as the four penguins stared at her.

“Jasmine’s downstairs,” Private informed Emily, who smiled and mumbled a thanks to the young bird as she walked over to the fishbowl, but Skipper appeared in front of her.

“I’m not gonna let both of you in there by yourselves,” the flat-headed penguin said as he continued to glare at Emily.

Kowalski took a step toward his leader. “But you let Jasmine in there by herself…” He sounded as if he thought the female penguin would actually cause trouble.

Emily opened her mouth to defend her friend, but just then the island under her feet started shaking and the fishbowl flew in the air as smoke from the explosion drifted out of the hole. Skipper and his team gasped and ran over there, disappearing into their lair. Emily followed them, Julien and Mort right behind her.

When she landed inside, Emily glanced around. Smoke was leaking out of the lab. Instantly Kowalski ran over there, but as soon as he touched the knob, the door fell to the floor. The tall penguin let out a scream and ran into the other room.

Fear shot through Emily and she walked over to the lab, looking inside from the main room. She saw Jasmine looking around, confused like she didn’t know what just happened. Emily noticed that several objects littered the floor, but she was just glad her friend seemed unharmed. The female lemur ran to Jasmine and looked her over just to make sure she was okay.

Satisfied that she didn’t have any obvious wounds, Emily took a step back and asked,” What happened?”

“Yes, I would also like to know that.” The two girls looked at the entrance of the lab to see Skipper standing there, his flippers across his chest. He looked really mad now, and Emily took a step away from him, trying to hide behind her friend, but Jasmine seemed just as scared, even if she tried to hide it.

“I just wanted to see what a few of these things did,” the female penguin explained herself nervously. “I didn’t really expect them to blow up.”

Emily looked across the lab to see that Kowalski was going through his destroyed inventions as if hoping to salvage his machines as much as possible. She glanced on the other side of the room, noticing he still had lots of inventions over there; just the ones closest to the explosion were destroyed.

“I knew it wasn’t a good idea to let the spy stay in here by herself,” Skipper said as he continued to glare at the two girls. “If it hadn’t been for Alice, I would have kept a better eye on you.”

Jasmine’s eyes flashed with anger as she stormed over to the lead penguin, but before she could say anything, Emily heard a weird sound echoing outside.

Confused, the female lemur pushed past Jasmine and Skipper, and started walking back to the ladder. She was aware of Julien watching her, but for once she was too distracted to even glance at her beloved king. She started climbing the ladder and poked her head out of the hole. What she saw frightened her, and she quickly jumped back into the lair to warn everyone.

“Dr. Blowhole’s here!”


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

As soon as she said that, everyone turned to Emily. She could see the suspicion that flashed in Skipper’s eyes as he walked over to the female lemur.

“How do you know Blowhole?” the lead penguin demanded, and Emily tried to find something to say, but before she could Private ran to his leader.

“That doesn’t matter right now, Skippah,” the young bird said as he turned scared eyes on Skipper. “We need to stop Blowhole before he does something horrible!”

At first Emily thought Skipper was going to argue, but finally he sighed and turned his back on Emily. A rush of relief came over her.  _ Why did I have to say his name? _ she scolded herself.  _ Why couldn’t I just say some dolphin on a Segway is here? Skipper would have known who it was immediately. Now he’s even more suspicious of me! _

She didn’t have a chance to think anymore; she noticed that Jasmine was beside her. Emily’s friend’s eyes were shining with excitement, and Emily knew what she was about to say before she even opened her beak. “Let’s help Blowhole,” the female penguin whispered to her friend.

Emily glanced at Julien, before turning back to her friend, shaking her head. “I’m sorry,” she murmured. “I can’t go against Julien. I’d rather help him than Blowhole.”

There was surprise and even hurt in Jasmine’s eyes, and Emily was about to say something to cheer her up, but suddenly Jasmine backed away and ran up the ladder. Emily wanted to call her back and remind her that if Skipper saw her hanging with his most hated enemy, there was no way he was going to let them stay here anymore. But she couldn’t risk Skipper and the others overhearing her.

Glancing across the lair, she saw that Skipper was deep in thought as he paced; he was clearly trying to think of a way to beat Dr. Blowhole. Emily spotted a sparkle of uncertainty in his eyes as he continued to pace. It was obvious he had no idea that Blowhole was gonna show up today.

Skipper’s team was surrounding their leader, waiting for orders, and the two lemurs were staring at the penguins. She was sure nobody would notice if she went up the ladder. Quietly, Emily climbed out of the HQ, hopping onto the island. Taking a deep breath, Emily went to the edge of the platform and then jumped over the gate. She gasped in surprise when her foot hit one of the bars and she fell to the hard ground below, landing on her stomach. She groaned as she looked up. What she saw made her widen her eyes.

Blowhole was in front of her, Jasmine jumping up and down with excitement beside him as she stared up at the dolphin on his one-wheeled vehicle. Emily was surprised to see her friend so hyper; she rarely got this way. But then she remembered that Neil Patrick Harris was one of her favorite actors, though in this world Blowhole doesn’t know anything about him being a cartoon.

Emily pushed herself to her feet, ignoring the pain that shot through her, and faced Blowhole. Remembering all the times she’s watched the show, she fell into a fighting position she’s seen the penguins use so many times.

Rage pulsed through her when Blowhole let out a mocking laugh. Then he grew serious again as he glared down at Emily. “Well, at least one of you is willing to help me,” he growled with a glance at Jasmine.

Emily looked at her friend; she knew Jasmine admired Blowhole, but she also had to remind her of her love of explosives. “What about Rico?” she asked the female penguin.

Wonder and excitement flashed across Jasmine’s face for a moment, but then she shook her head. “I’d love to explode stuff up with Rico, but I’m gonna have to go with Neil Pa—“

Before she could finish his name, Emily ran to Jasmine and covered her mouth. She whispered in her ear,” Blowhole knows nothing about the actor who plays him, so don’t mention him unless you want to tell everyone that all of this is a T.V. show in our universe.”

She let go of her friend and was glad to see her nodding in understanding.

Emily looked up and saw Blowhole staring down at them with confusion in his one eye, and he opened his mouth as if to say something, but just then Emily saw a flash of black-and-white. She glanced up to see the four penguins jumping over the gate; Kowalski, Rico, and Private landed in front of Blowhole, but Skipper slammed right into his enemy, knocking the dolphin off his Segway. They must have finally come up with a plan to stop Dr. Blowhole. Emily tried not to roll her eyes when she saw that their plan was to beat up the dolphin.

She took a step back, not sure what to do. She ran into something, and she felt a hand on her shoulder. She spun around to see Julien looking down at her anxiously.

“Come on, pretty lemur,” he whispered to her. “I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”

Emily was torn between being offended and the love she felt for the lemur king. She wanted to tell him that she could take care of herself, but she knew that wasn’t true, and she didn’t want to argue with him. She glanced over her shoulder, knowing she couldn’t leave Jasmine. Sighing, she wondered what she should do.

“What’s wrong?” The worry in the king’s eyes deepened, and he seemed to know that she was trying to decide between him and Jasmine.

Sighing again, Emily looked into his yellow gaze and said,” I can’t leave Jasmine. She’s my best friend.” Before Julien could stop her, Emily ran to her friend, hoping that she would be able to convince her to come with them.

Jasmine turned to her when she got to her. “I’m helping Blowhole,” she said before Emily could say anything. “I’m sorry, Emily,” she went on. “But you know I’ve always wanted to help you know who’s character.”

Emily looked at her friend for a long moment. “But if Skipper finds out, he won’t let us stay,” she argued, frowning. “I really want to stay with Julien.” She glanced over her shoulder at the lemur king, noticing that he was staring at the two friends with huge eyes. She looked over at the penguins and saw that Skipper was wrestling with Blowhole, while his team looked on, waiting for their leader to give them an order. But it was obvious that Skipper was so focused on beating his enemy that he forgot all about them.

It was a while until Jasmine replied; she was glancing around at everyone, too. Then she gave a huge sigh as she turned back to Emily. “You really want to stay with Julien?” she asked, staring into Emily’s eyes.

Emily nodded, hoping Jasmine would realize how much this meant to her.

Groaning loudly, Jasmine gave in. “Fine,” she muttered.

Emily gave her a huge smile and hugged her friend; then they walked over to where Julien was still standing. He looked uncertainty at Jasmine, and Emily was afraid he’d object to bringing her because she had wanted to help the enemy. However, in the end he just shrugged and grabbed onto Emily’s hand, dragging her away.

Glancing over her shoulder, Emily was glad to see her friend keeping up with them, but she frowned when she noticed the annoyed look on her face. It was then that she realized that Mort had appeared and was running beside Julien. She sighed to herself when she saw the looks the little lemur shot her, but she didn’t have time to tell him to knock it off. Julien pulled her around a corner and finally came to a halt. Jasmine and Mort stopped beside them.

“Okay, hopefully we’re being safe here,” Julien murmured as he glanced around at everyone; Emily saw a flash of annoyance in his yellow eyes when he looked over at Mort. But the king quickly turned away from the mouse lemur. “Are you okay?” he asked Emily, who tried not to roll her eyes, reminding herself of her love for the lemur king.

“I’m fine,” Emily muttered as she glanced at her best friend, kind of hoping she’d say something to Julien about treating her like she’s completely helpless; but Jasmine was staring past everyone, back the way they had come. Emily turned her head to see what she was looking at, and realized that Skipper had managed to pin Blowhole down. Now it seemed like the flat-headed penguin was growling something to him.

As she watched, Skipper jumped off Blowhole and glared at him as the dolphin reached for his scooter, pulling himself back onto it. Emily pricked her ears to pick up what Blowhole was saying.

“Fine, peng-u-in,” the dolphin sneered. “I’m going… for now. But I will return for those two.” And with that, the evil Dr. Blowhole turned around on his Segway and made for the zoo entrance; the four penguins stared after him as he went. Emily was surprised that Skipper just let him leave without much more of a fight.

The female lemur gasped aloud when the leader turned his glare toward her and the others. Skipper stormed over there and stopped in front of the girls, crossing his flippers on his chest; his team came running over to join their commanding officer.

“Okay, out with it,” Skipper growled, still glaring at Emily and Jasmine. “How do you know Blowhole? You’re working for him, aren’t you?”

Emily and Jasmine exchanged nervous glances, both wondering if they should just admit how they know Blowhole. Emily wanted to confess everything to the leader, but Jasmine wasn’t so sure. Either way, Skipper was too suspicious of them now and there’s no way he’s going to let them continue to stay at the zoo.

As they hesitated, the flat-headed penguin grew impatient. “Admit it!” he shouted. “You’re working for Blowhole!”

“Um… Skippah…” Private started nervously, turning to his leader. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation…” He turned to Emily and Jasmine. “Right?”

“Skipper was right all along,” Kowalski murmured, looking ashamed that he didn’t believe his leader. “We should never have brought them here. Should we chase them out, Skipper?”

At this, Rico nodded eagerly and made a step toward the girls like he was about to use force to throw them out of the zoo. Emily moved closer to Jasmine, swallowing nervously; Jasmine, however, stood her ground. Even though she was terrified, she wasn’t about to show it. Before Rico could touch them though Skipper held up his flipper.

“Hold on,” he said, glancing at the psychopath before turning back to Emily and Jasmine. Rico stopped, and looked at him in surprise and slight disappointment. “I want to hear their story,” Skipper explained, still glaring at the girls, but there was a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

Emily glanced at Jasmine, who looked back at her. For a moment they silently spoke to each other through expressions. Finally, they turned back to the leader, and Emily sighed. “I’m not sure you’ll believe us if we told you,” she said.

Skipper stared at them. “Try me.”

Now it was Jasmine’s turn to sigh. “Okay, don’t say we didn’t warn you. What you are about to hear is the craziest story ever told in the history of stories!”

Emily rolled her eyes at her friend’s drama. Then she took a deep breath and let it out. She was aware of Julien beside her all of the sudden. She had told him that her and Jasmine had been humans in their universe, but she didn’t tell him that all of this was a cartoon. Should she confess that now?  _ Skipper wants to know how we know Blowhole… _

“Well?” Skipper demanded as the females still hesitated. “Are you going to tell us or what? Don’t make me force it out of you. I’m sure I could use one of Kowalski’s inventions to make you tell me.”

Kowalski glanced nervously at his leader, but said nothing.

“Just tell him,” Jasmine said with a heavy sigh.

“Okay, okay.” Emily swallowed nervously. “Well, you see all of this?” She gestured around them.

“All of what?” asked Private.

“The zoo,” Emily answered. “The exhibits. The park. You.” She pointed to Private, then to the rest of his friends. “All of you. Yes, even you, Julien and Mort.”

Skipper growled,” What about all of it and us?”

Emily glanced at Jasmine, who nodded encouragement. “All of it… in our universe…” She paused for a moment, and as she did that, Jasmine blurted out,” You’re all cartoons!”


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

Silence fell. Everyone stared at the female penguin with different emotions. When she saw Skipper’s glare hardened, Jasmine wished the ground underneath her feet would open and swallow her whole just to get away from all the looks. Private exchanged a look with Rico; the young penguin looked scared, while the psychopath looked uncertain. Curiosity and wonder shined in Kowalski’s eyes as he stared at Jasmine.

Glancing at the lemurs, she noticed that the king didn’t seem to quite understand what she meant, and Mort just had a vacant look on his face as he stared up at her. She looked at her best friend, who stared back at her with worried eyes. They both shared a look and nodded in understanding. They knew they had to explain.

Finally, Emily cleared her throat and said,” Jasmine’s right.” She hesitantly took a step forward, but froze when Skipper’s brow bent as he turned his glare on her. She swallowed nervously and looked at her friend for help.

Jasmine was just as scared and worried as Emily, but she tried not to show it as she walked to her side. “In our universe, everything here is a cartoon on T.V. That’s how we knew about all of you and Blowhole.” She paused, knowing it would be a very bad idea to admit to them that she liked Dr. Blowhole far more than she liked any of them.

Skipper opened his beak to speak, but before he could, voices called out to them and everyone turned. Maurice was running up to them, with Marlene close behind him. The aye-aye stopped beside his king, panting, and Marlene halted next to Skipper. Emily noticed that they were both looking anxious about something.

“Where have you been, Your Majesty?” Maurice asked Julien.

“Well, I was taking Emily to see her friend,” the ring-tailed answered, sounding really confused about everything, and he kept glancing at the female lemur. “But then that Blowhole guy showed up and—“

Marlene interrupted him. “Yeah, we saw him leaving the zoo.” She looked at Skipper with huge eyes. “Is everything okay?”

At first Skipper didn’t reply. He kept staring at Emily and Jasmine for a long time, and they both felt uncomfortable under his gaze. Finally, he said,” Apparently, we’re cartoons.” He spoke slowly as if still processing the information.

Maurice and Marlene blinked confused eyes. “What do you mean?” Marlene asked. Forgetting all about Blowhole, they were more curious to know what Skipper meant by that.

“Well, these two here are from another universe,” Skipper explained to Marlene, since Maurice already knew that. “And,” he went on to both of them,” apparently where they are from, we’re all cartoons on T.V.” He glared at Emily and Jasmine again, and they exchanged nervous looks.

Marlene looked curiously at the best friends. For a few moments, nobody spoke. Then Maurice broke the silence. “Can we actually believe them?” the aye-aye asked, with an uncertain glance at Emily and Jasmine.

The females looked at each other. “It’s the truth!” Jasmine insisted.

“Ask us anything,” Emily said, and Jasmine nervously looked at her, but she reminded herself that her friend probably knew everything there was to know about The Penguins of Madagascar.

_ Don’t worry, _ Jasmine told herself.  _ Emily’s got this. _

Skipper eyed them suspiciously. “How much do you know about Blowhole?” he finally asked.

Emily thought:  _ I need to be careful how I answer. _ Swallowing, she began to explain everything she knew about the evil dolphin. “You all know him as Dr. Blowhole, but he goes by different names: Flippy in Seaville where he used to performed shows for the visitors, and his sister Doris—“ Suddenly Kowalski’s eyes lit up at the mention of his long time crush, but he looked away when Skipper shot him a look—“ she calls him Francis. He’s a super genius, as smart as Kowalski or close to it at least.” The tall penguin looked proud of himself for a moment, though when Skipper growled at him, he frowned and lowered his eyes.

“Go on,” the leader said to Emily with one last look at Kowalski.

“Okay, so, while he was Flippy, the humans made him jump through a hoop on fire but something went wrong and that might have caused the robotic replacement on his right eye. The first episode he appears in, he creates this machine to conquer the world to get revenge on the humans who humiliated him at Coney Island when they made him jump through  _ The Ring of Fire. _ ” She attempted to say it as cool as the robot voice did on the show and she heard it in her head, but the looks everyone gave her told her how lame it actually sounded in person. Even Jasmine was giving her an awkward, sorry-for-you look.

Embarrassed Emily cleared her throat and shifted standing positions. “Do I need to go on?” she murmured.

For a long time, Skipper said nothing and Emily dared to look up at him. He was staring at her with an unreadable expression. She glanced over at Maurice, who didn’t believe the girls at first. Now he was looking at the female lemur with huge, shocked eyes, his mouth opened in a silent gasp. That’s pretty much how the other three penguins looked, shocked to their core that Emily, a newcomer, knew so much about their leader’s arch-enemy.

Marlene’s expression revealed her shock too. Turning to Julien, the brown lemur saw that he wasn’t in shock like the others, just really curious.

“So we are being cartoons in your universe,” the king said, eyes shining with excitement. “So you also know who stopped that Blowhole guy that time.” He stood up tall and smiled down at her.

Emily nodded eagerly. “Yes, of course,” she replied. “You were a great double agent. Nobody saw it coming!”

Julien glowed at her compliment.

Jasmine thought really hard.  _ Have I seen that episode? _ she asked herself.  _ Why wasn’t I paying attention? I should have known I’d be sucked into the show one day and faced with this dilemma! _ Yeah, while watching the show it never even crossed her mind once that this might happen, but now here she was, surrounded by the characters and in the hot seat with her friend. If they say the wrong thing, they were goners. Skipper would throw them out of the zoo so fast that it’ll make their heads spin.  _ Unless he wants to keep us as prisoners! _ She gulped nervously.

Suddenly Skipper snapped his glare to her. “What do you have to say for yourself,  _ traitor _ ?”

Jasmine looked nervously at Emily, who jumped to her friend’s defense. “She didn’t mean anything by doing what she did!” the brown lemur insisted. “She was… just excited, that’s all…”

“Excited?” Skipper echoed, lifting an unexisting eyebrow. “About joining Blowhole? That’s what a traitor does!” His eyes hardened as he stared at Jasmine, who took a step back, looking pleadingly at Emily.

“You have to understand,” Emily begged. “The actor who plays Dr. Blowhole is Jasmine’s Hollywood husband.”

Private exchanged a confused look with Kowalski and Rico. “Hollywood husband?” the young penguin asked.

“Someone who lives in Hollywood— an actor or actress— and who the person, in this case Jasmine, likes enough to fantasize about but most likely would never meet. So you have to understand that meeting Blowhole was like meeting the actor. She wasn’t thinking. Please she didn’t mean to side with your arch-enemy. Please don’t throw us out!” Emily’s voice rose to a whine as she fell at Skipper’s feet and begged him not to get rid of them. What she said about Jasmine was also true with her, except that Julien was who she dreamed about, not his actor so it was even better being here with him and she didn’t want to leave, especially since they had nowhere else to go.

Private turned to his leader. “Please Skippah, can’t they stay?”

Skipper shook his head. “I don’t like it. Not one bit. Traitor or spy or neither, they shouldn’t be here. They should never have stepped foot in our zoo. We should never have spent so much time with them. They need to go.”

“But—“ Jasmine started as Emily sat up.

“I agree with Skipper,” the strategist said. Private looked at him in surprise and he went on,” I would love to do more tests on them to compare animals from their universe to ones in ours.”

Emily and Jasmine exchanged fearful glances. More tests? They barely survived the last test! They both looked visibly relieved when Kowalski continued: “But I don’t think I can. Like Skipper said, they don’t belong here. They need to go home, and before Blowhole returns and succeeds in capturing them.”

“Um… what do you think he will do to them?” Private asked anxiously.

“Probably turn them into horrid creatures that could defeat us once and for all.”

Private gulped.

“Can you invent something that’ll send these girls home?” Skipper asked Kowalski, who looked thoughtful.

“Maybe but I’d need their  coordinates,” the tall penguin said.

“Coordinates?” Jasmine shared a look with Emily, a thought suddenly striking her. “Didn’t Blowhole say the same thing when he was using his universe portal thing?”

“Yes!” Emily nodded excitedly. “That’s how we got here, through our T.V.!”

“A universe portal thing?” Kowalski murmured. “If I could get those coordinates, I could send them back.”

Emily frowned, remembering something else. “But the machine was destroyed,” she told them. “It blew up and that’s when the portal opened and sucked us in.”

“If I could just examine the pieces, I might be able to reassemble the machine or, at the very least, use it to get the coordinates of the original transmission.”

Skipper sighed. “Which means…”

“...We have to pay Blowhole a visit,” Kowalski finished his sentence, nodding.

“Great,” Skipper muttered, while Private gasped in horror, and Rico looked ready for a fight.

“Hold on, hold on!” Suddenly Julien appeared in between the girls and the penguins. “So what is this meaning? I have to say goodbye to the pretty lemur?” He glanced at Emily, who blushed and looked away shyly, but sighed when she saw Mort grinning; clearly the little mouse lemur wasn’t going to miss her when she was gone.

“Yes, Ringtail,” Skipper told him. “As soon as we get back from getting the coordinates, these females are out of here.”

Julien frowned and looked at Emily. “Then I must spend all the time I have left with her. Come on, pretty lemur.” He took her paw and dragged her away. She glanced back at Jasmine, who stood there awkwardly. The female lemur mouthed,  _ I’m sorry, _ as Julien continued to pull her away.

Mort stared angrily after his king and Emily, and he didn’t realize Maurice was beside him until the aye-aye spoke. “Come on, Mort. Let’s go back to our habitat.” Mort didn’t say anything as he followed Maurice.

“Well, that was… um… interesting.” Marlene wasn’t sure what to say. She was still in shock. “I… I’m just going to… um… yeah…” She walked away, eyes huge as she still processed everything.

Suddenly Jasmine realized she was alone with the penguins. She smiled nervously but frowned when Skipper glared at her. “You, traitor, you’re coming with us,” the leader unexpectedly said.

Jasmine widened her eyes. “I am?”

“Yes.”

“Skipper, do you think that’s a good idea?” Kowalski asked.

“I want to keep an eye on her,” the flat-headed penguin said. “I can’t leave her here. You remember what she did in your lab, Kowalski,” he reminded the penguin. “If we left her by herself, she’d explode our whole HQ!”

“Skippah, I don’t think—“ Private started, but Skipper interrupted him.

“I’m not taking any chances, Private. Now come on,” the leader went on, turning to leave. “And you better keep up,  _ traitor! _ ” he called over his shoulder as he slid away on his stomach, followed by his team.

Jasmine didn’t move at first. What was she to do? She could disobey Skipper and stay here with Emily, but she could only imagine what would become of her if she refused to go with them. Sighing, she took a running start and slid on her belly after the penguins.

* * *

**Back at Coney Island**

When Dr. Blowhole arrived back at his lair, he was growling to himself. He was beyond mad that the penguins stopped him before he had the chance to receive the two humans he needed to go through with his plan. He had thought for a moment that maybe he’d be able to get at least one of them, but the female lemur had convinced her friend to go against him and join the penguins’ side.

Just thinking about that now was making him even more upset.

He jumped when a voice spoke behind him. “Did you get the humans, doc?”

Blowhole turned around to see his number one lobster, but the mad dolphin only glared at him, before riding past him without a word.

“I’m guessing that’s a no,” the lobster muttered, and then he hurried after Blowhole.

The dolphin didn’t want to talk about it, but he knew he had to say something. “I didn’t get them this time,” he growled as he continued to head toward the monitor room.

“This time?” the red crustacean questioned as he tried to keep up with Blowhole.

Blowhole came to a halt once he entered the room with all the computers. He turned to the lobster, who saw that he had an evil smile on his face. “Yes, red one,” the dolphin laughed. “I will come up with another plan and get them next time!” Then he started chuckling demonically as he rode to one of the computers, beginning work on another way to get the humans he needed to defeat the penguins once and for all.

Just then the room started flashing with red and a loud beeping noise could be heard throughout the whole lair. Blowhole looked up in surprise. “What is that?” he demanded.

“An alarm,” one of the lobsters told him.

The dolphin glared at it. “I know that! I mean, what’s it for?”

Another lobster was studying a screen intently. “We have intruders!” it called out.

“What?” Blowhole turned to it. “Who—”

On the screen he saw a flash of black-and-white. He narrowed his one good eye. “Peng-u-ins,” he growled. For a moment he was frozen. He didn’t expect them to follow him back. He knew his escape was too easy. Did they come here to trap him?  _ I’m not going back to Seaville!  _ he thought savagely.

“Doc? Doc! Hey, doc!”

Dr. Blowhole snapped out of it and turned to the lobster. “What?” he snapped.

“What do you want us to do?” it asked nervously.

“Send in the  ninja lobsters!”

The  crustacean hurried over to a button and pressed it.

* * *

**With Penguins**

“Come  _ on _ , traitor!” Skipper called again as he turned around to glare at Jasmine, who was struggling to keep up. They were going way too fast for her, and she was tired. All she wanted to do was sit down and catch her breath. But the leader of the penguins wouldn’t let her.

_ I almost miss being called a spy, _ she thought to herself. This new name Skipper called her was more hurtful than when he believed she was a secret agent sent from one of his enemies to spy on them.  _ I only have myself to blame, _ she realized.  _ I don’t regret wanting to team up with Blowhole. I regret Skipper seeing me. _

She sighed to herself, which turned into a groan when Skipper shouted at her again. “Get the led out, traitor!” he called to her, and she hurried to them, glad to see that they had finally stopped. She halted beside them, panting. She noticed the look Private gave her, full of sympathy, but she didn’t want his pity. She just wanted to go home and forget all about this experience.

_ At least Emily enjoyed herself, _ she thought with an inwardly sigh. She wondered what her lemur friend was doing right now.  _ Probably mooning over Julien. _ It broke her heart seeing those two together, wishing so much that she could take the king’s place. Why didn’t Emily look at her the same way she looked at that ring-tailed lemur? It wasn’t fair! She was ten times better than that narcissistic, selfish, immature, dim-witted, thinks he’s so much better than everyone else, loser of a king!

Suddenly she was shoved aside and she looked at the flat-headed penguin in surprise. He was looking at something, and Jasmine turned to see three lobsters crawling toward them. She looked nervously at the penguins. They were all in battle stances, ready to take the shellfish on.

“Okay, so I see you all have it under control here.” She started backing up. “I’ll just be… Bye!” She spun around and made a run for it, but at a command from his leader, Rico jumped in front of her and she slammed into him. “Not again, dude,” she muttered as she sat up. The psychopath grabbed her flipper and dragged her back to his friends.

“I’m not letting you out of my sight, traitor,” Skipper growled at her. Then he turned to his strategist. “I’ll hold them off with Rico. You and Private find the universal thing Blowhole used to get these females. We meet outside at 1900 hours.”

“Right,” Kowalski said, and in a flash, he and Private were off.

Jasmine blinked. Did they even know where to go? she wondered. But she was distracted from that thought when she heard the approach of a lobster and she dodged to one side as it snapped its claws on empty air. Amazed that she was able to move so fast, she did it again and again.

“Ha, can’t touch me!” she jeered at it. In that moment, she glanced at Skipper and Rico, who were also locked in combat with two more lobsters. While she was distracted, the lobster she was fighting knocked her feet out from under her and she gasped as she fell to the ground. It pinned her down and she struggled to get free. “Help!” she screamed.

Suddenly the weight of it was lifted off her and she stumbled to find her footing. She looked at Skipper. “Thanks!” she panted.

He just nodded and turned to the lobster. He finished the fight fast, and Jasmine noticed that the other two were also unconscious, with Rico standing over there, still looking ready to take on a whole army.

Skipper walked over to him. “Stand down, man,” he said. He glanced at Jasmine and shook his head. “Let’s get out of here and meet the others before we draw any more attention.”

“What?” Jasmine exclaimed. “I didn’t call on those lobsters! And besides, what about Blowhole? Aren’t you going to stop him?”

“Our mission here is to receive the cooperation to send you and your friend back,” the leader told her, sounding annoyed. “Let us deal with Blowhole, but not when you’re here to get in the way.”

“What?” the female penguin exclaimed again. “Did you not see my ultimate dodging skills? I bet it was even better than yours!”

“Unlikely.” Skipper shook his head in frustration. “We don’t have time for this. We need to go before—“

A mocking laugh interrupted him and everyone turned toward a dark corner of the hall to see a red light flicking on. Then Dr. Blowhole rode out of the shadows and grinned down at the penguins. “Hello again, peng-u-ins.”


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**With Kowalski and Private**

Rounding a corner, Kowalski and Private stood there, panting, as a group of lobsters hurried down the hall. They went unnoticed and as soon as the  creatures were out of sight, they ducked into a room. Large machines towered over them and Private gasped when he saw a laser pointed straight at him. Gulping, he moved out of the way.

“That universe machine has to be around here somewhere,” Kowalski muttered, half to himself.

“What do you think it looks like?” Private asked, glancing at him, but the tall penguin just shrugged.

“According to the females, it exploded, so it would be in pieces.”

Private nodded and went off in search of machine parts that would have the coordinates to send Emily and Jasmine back to their world. As he looked, he thought about a few things. He wished Skipper would allow them to stay. He wanted to be their friend and he believed with some training Jasmine could become part of the team.

_ And Julien and Emily seem really close, _ he added to himself. The two friends could fit in well at the zoo, and he recalled what Marlene said about being the only girl. Maybe the zoo did need more females, and the otter could become close friends with them. He knew Marlene was closed to Skipper, but surely she needed other females to share gossip with? That’s what girls did, right? He shrugged, knowing it was useless wishing they could stay. Skipper seemed determined to send them back and he had to focus on following orders.

He was knocked out of his thoughts when Kowalski called out to him. “Over here!” His teammate was gesturing with his flippers, and Private joined him and stared down at the pieces littering the floor.

“Do you think this is it?” he asked.

Kowalski nodded and pointed to a cracked screen. He bent over and pushed a button. The machine started smoking and Private gasped, wondering if it was about to blow up again. He watched nervously as Kowalski studied the parts, pressing another button. Symbols popped up on the screen and Kowalski took out a notepad, writing the markings down. He gave the machine one last look over, and then straightened up.

“Okay, got it. Let’s go.” He started walking away, but suddenly his path was blocked by lobsters. Private swallowed nervously and moved closer to his friend as more of the creatures appeared, surrounding them. He looked for a way out, but there was none. They’d have to fight, he realized.

_ You can do this, Private! _ he told himself, lifting his flippers, ready to take on Dr. Blowhole’s henchmen. Then he heard something above him and looked up to see lobsters jumping from the ceiling. He opened his beak to warn Kowalski, but before he could, the crustaceans landed on him and he fell down hard, hitting his head. He tried to focus but the last thing he saw was the lobsters closing in on him. Then he passed out.

* * *

**With Jasmine**

Standing beside Skipper and Rico, Jasmine looked nervously at the evil dolphin as he rode closer on his segway. She forced down the excitement rising in her.

_ Skipper already thinks you’re a traitor, _ she reminded herself sternly.  _ Don’t prove it to him by showing how excited you are to see Blowhole! _

But she couldn’t help it. She wasn’t a big fan of the show and when the episode where Blowhole makes his first appearance came out, she thought it was going to be lame. That was until she found out who was playing him. Now every time he shows up, she roots for him, excited to hear his voice, but now as she stood here beside the penguins, she had to hide her exhilaration, afraid that Skipper would suspect something. If it weren’t for her friend back at the zoo, she’d join the dolphin in a heartbeat, not caring about Skipper. But Emily didn’t want to risk anything, and she had to behave for the sake of the brown lemur.

Suddenly she realized that Dr. Blowhole was speaking, and she focused in time to hear him say,”....so nice of you to bring her to me, Skipper.”

Jasmine blinked.  _ Did he mean me? _ she wondered. She started to back away, torn between what she wanted and what Emily wanted. She longed to join Blowhole, but she knew how much it meant for her friend to stay on the side of good.  _ But does it really matter? We’re going home anyways and she’s already spending the rest of her time with Julien. Would it be such a big deal to help Blowhole for a while, and as soon as Kowalski gets the coordinates I go back with the penguins and they can send us home? _

She ran into something and she spun around to see lobsters standing in front of her. Jumping back, she bumped into Rico, who glared at her, but then focused on the main problem: The lobsters that were surrounding them.

Skipper glared at Blowhole. “You can’t have her,” he growled. “We’re sending her and her friend back where they came from. As soon as Kowalski and Private get the—“

“Coordinates?” the mad dolphin interrupted. “About that.” He called for more lobsters and they scuttered down the hall, carrying something.

Jasmine gasped when she recognized the two penguins. As the lobsters set them down, Skipper ran over to them. Kowalski blinked up at his leader anxiously before looking down at Private, who seemed to be unconscious.

Bending beside the young penguin, Skipper shook him gently. “Private?” he called softly. “Private, wake up.”

For a few moments he didn’t move; then he let out a groan and slowly sat up. “What happened?” he moaned.

“Shhh,” Skipper murmured, glancing at Kowalski. Obviously he was wondering the same thing, but didn’t want to put any more stress on Private. “That doesn’t matter right now. Are you okay?”

Private nodded slowly. “I-I think so,” he stammered.

“This is very heartwarming and all,” Dr. Blowhole interrupted, rolling his good eye. “But now that I’ve captured you peng-u-ins, I can—”

“Captured?” Private echoed, turning frightened eyes on his leader, who glared at Blowhole and opened his mouth, but before he could say anything, the dolphin bent over Private and grinned evilly.

“Yes, Private,” he said, with a wicked gleam to his good eye. He straightened up and pressed a button on his segway which opened the floor underneath the four commando birds. They all fell through, and Jasmine gasped, afraid that they were hurt, but then they reappeared, inside a cage that lifted up out of the floor.

Instantly, Rico jumped up and tried to bend the bars, but a moment later, he fell back down, a deep growl in his throat.

“Nice try,” Blowhole mocked. He rode his segway over to Jasmine, who tried backing up, but lobsters were blocking her way. “Now that I have you and my lobsters are heading to the zoo to retrieve that female lemur, I can finally—“

“What do you mean, ‘retrieve’ Emily?” the female penguin demanded. All excitement at hearing the evil dolphin’s voice was drowned out by fear and anxiety she felt for her friend back to the Central Park Zoo.

“Oh, just that soon you two will be on my side, whether you want to or not.” Blowhole pointed at one of the lobsters. “Go get the helmets.” It scuttled off, and soon returned, holding two helmets, which it handed to Dr. Blowhole. “With these, I’ll be able to control you and you’ll do everything I tell you to!” He threw his head back and let out a bone-chilling laugh.

Jasmine braced herself. She knew just a bit ago she was considering joining Blowhole even without the helmets, but as soon as he threatened her best friend, her feelings about him change. She didn’t care who played him anymore. She was going to fight him if she had to; there was no way she was going to let her or Emily be put under his control.

WIthout warning, she springed at him, knocking him off his segway. He looked shocked at her attack, but she didn’t stop there. She started throwing punches, blinded by anger. Before she could make contact, the lobsters were pulling her off their boss, holding her down. More lobsters helped Blowhole back on his segway and once he was steady, he glared down at Jasmine, who glared back at him.

“I thought I could get you to join me without the helmet,” he said, sounding annoyed. “But it looks like I might need it after all. Put it on her,” he ordered a lobster, and it took the helmet from Dr. Blowhole before walking over to Jasmine. The female penguin struggled in the lobsters’ grip, but it was no use. She couldn’t get free.

She gulped as the lobster got closer. She closed her eyes, unable to see it happen.  _ I’m sorry, Emily, _ she thought as she felt the lobster putting it on her. She tried to fight off the effects of the helmet, but she couldn’t. She no longer had control of her mind; it now belonged to Blowhole.

* * *

**With Emily**

The setting sun made a glorious scene in front of Emily as she sat on top of the clock tower beside the king. She longed to lean into him, but she wasn’t sure if he would like that, so she just sat there, aware of how awkward it was, despite how beautiful the scenery was.

To her surprise, he wrapped his arm around her and pulled her closer to him. “I enjoyed our time together,” he declared, with a glance at her.

She blushed. “I did too.”

He paused for a moment, before confessing,” You remind me of a friend I left back at Madagascar.” He turned and stared into her hazel eyes. “Which is probably why I feel so close to you.”

Emily blushed harder. She noticed the look he was giving her and that he was beginning to lean in. She was torn between panic and excitement, and she forced herself to relax, but it didn’t help much. She was still very nervous. She’s dreamed about this moment for so long! What if she messed it up somehow?

Before they could kiss, the sound of someone climbing the tower startled them.

They both turned as Maurice, panting, pulled himself up the rest of the way and collapsed. Anger flashing in his eyes, Julien stood up. “What is it, Maurice?” he demanded, sounding very annoyed.

At first the aye-aye didn’t answer, only struggled to catch his breath. Then he sat up, staring at his king. “I’m worried about the penguins,” he finally confessed, getting to his feet.

Julien rolled his eyes. “Why?” he asked. “You know them; they can take care of themselves. You interrupted us!” He shot Emily an exasperated look. “Now go away and leave us alone.”

“But—“

Just then lobsters appeared from nowhere and surrounded them. Emily gasped and moved closer to Julien.  _ Blowhole’s henchman! _ she thought, fear running through her. What were they doing here? Where were the penguins? Surely they couldn’t be far behind. Unless…

She pushed the thought that they could have been captured away. Even if they were, they wouldn’t be for long. She expected them to emerge from the gathering darkness and take on the lobsters. But there was still no sign of them and the lobsters were closing in.

Julien stepped in front of her, bravely protecting her from the creatures. She gulped; she knew Julien would keep her safe, but she didn’t know how. He didn’t have the skills the penguins possessed.  _ But he defeated Blowhole a couple of times before, _ she told herself.  _ I’m sure he can take on a few lobsters. _

Still the thought wasn’t much comfort because more lobsters climbed the tower and they were outnumbered. She gasped as one of them lunged at her. Julien pushed her aside and kicked it away. She hung on tighter to him.

“We have to run for it, Your Majesty,” Maurice said to his king, jumping back as a lobster snapped its claws at him.

Julien nodded, but there was nowhere to run. Lobsters were everywhere. One jumped forward, grabbed Emily, and pulled her away from the lemurs. Julien tried to save her, but his way was blocked. Emily struggled in its grip, wincing because its claws dug into her. It jumped off the tower and hurried away. She screamed for help, but Julien was still surrounded by lobsters and he couldn’t come to her rescue.

She wished Jasmine was here.  _ She’d save me, _ the brown lemur thought, still fighting to get loose from the lobster holding her. She knew it was taking her to Blowhole; but what was going to happen after that?


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**Blowhole’s Lair**

The mad dolphin threw his head back and let out a menacing laugh. At last he was getting somewhere. Soon the penguins would be no more and nobody would stand in his way. He can have or do whatever he wants!

But first, he needed to make sure that his arch-enemy never ruined his plans ever again. For a moment, he thought about using one of his machines on them, turning them into monsters and sending them into the city to destroy the lives of the people who kept him captive. But then he considered another option when he looked down at the female penguin, ready to take orders.

_ I can have her take care of them, _ he thought evilly.  _ Under my control, her skills will be better than Skipper and his team! _

Grinning to himself, he turned to his number one lobster. “Red one,” he said, and the creature hurried to him. “Take the  peng-u-ins into a room and also take our new recruit.” He glanced at the female penguin. “And have her handle things from there.” The dolphin pressed a button on his segway, which sent a transmission to the helmet, and she saluted him to show that she understood.

“Yes, boss.” Red One snapped its claws and the rest of the lobsters picked up the cage.

Dr. Blowhole watched as they carried the penguins away, followed by the newest recruit, who was now loyal to him, whether she wanted to be or not. Chucking under his breath, he headed in the other direction, satisfied that soon he won’t have the penguins to worry about anymore. Soon he’ll have everything he always wanted and Skipper won’t be here to stop him.

* * *

**With Penguins**

The lobsters threw the cage down, and the penguins inside it knocked against each other. Skipper pushed Kowalski off him and looked up as the mind-controlled Jasmine walked in. She had a disturbing look on her face as she approached them.

Backing up, the lobsters eyed her and one of them said,” This should be interesting.”

“What do we do?” Private asked nervously.

“It looks like Blowhole has us beat,” Kowalski muttered darkly, and Rico nodded in agreement.

Skipper stared at his team, shocked. “Never!” he spat. “Blowhole hasn’t won until there’s not a breath in my body.” He looked around desperately. He noticed above Jasmine, a pole hung low, and an idea started to form in his mind. He turned back to his team and whispered,” Okay, listen up.” And he started telling them his plan. They nodded, still looking defeated, but willing to give their leader’s plan a chance.

They watched as Jasmine signaled to the lobsters to open the cage, and when they did, Skipper nodded to Kowalski and Rico. Together, they rushed forward, knocking the lobsters away, and Skipper looked at Private, who took a deep breath and ran to Jasmine, waving his flippers in the air. She snapped around, keeping her eyes on the young penguin.

Satisfied that nobody was paying attention to him, Skipper climbed on top of the cage and pushed off it. He soared through the air, grabbed the pole, and kicked out, knocking the helmet off Jasmine’s head. It fell beside her, and she stumbled backwards.

Groaning, she rubbed her head and asked,” What happened?”

Skipper dropped down and faced her. “Blowhole had control of you,” he growled.

She stared at him, wide eyed. Then she looked around nervously, moving behind Skipper as the lobsters lined up, at first looking like they were about to fight. But one look at Skipper and his team, and they scurried off.

“Right,” Skipper said. “Kowalski?”

The tall penguin hurried to his leader. “Yes, sir?”

“Did you get the coordinates?”

“Yes.”

“Then let’s move out, before Blowhole discovers we ruined his plans.”

The penguins turned to leave, but paused when Jasmine called them back. “We can’t leave,” she objected.

Skipper narrowed his eyes. Did he do the right thing in saving her? Was she still loyal to Blowhole? He didn’t trust her.

“Why not?” Private asked.

“Because Blowhole has Emily! Remember, he said he was going to the zoo to capture her, and I know he succeeded. I can feel it.”

Skipper groaned. He just wanted to get out of here and return home. He wanted everything to go back to normal before these females showed up. But he knew Jasmine was right. They had to recuse Emily.

“Okay,” he said, sighing. “Come on, let’s go save your lemur friend.”

* * *

**With Emily**

The creature carried her all the way to Blowhole’s lair. Some time after it had captured her, she had stopped struggling because that was getting her nowhere. Now she gasped as the lobster threw her down in front of Dr. Blowhole.

The evil dolphin grinned down at her. “Nice of you to stop by,” he said cruelly.

She gulped and tried backing up, but she ran into something. Claws pinched her as the lobster grabbed her, holding her still. More lobsters appeared, carrying a helmet between them. She had a bad feeling about this.

“Put it on her.” There was a disturbing look on Blowhole’s face.

Fear shot through her. She struggled to get free, but the lobster had a firm grip on her. All she could do was stand there and watch as the lobsters got closer, reaching the helmet out to her.

Then there was a flash of black-and-white, and Skipper fell from above, knocking the helmet away. He landed on the ground just as the rest of the penguins, Jasmine included, appeared and ran over to them.

Dr. Blowhole gasped and stared at the penguins. “How did you escape?” he demanded after another moment of shocked silence.

“Like I’m going to tell you,” Skipper retorted. “Kowalski, Rico, help the lemur!”

They nodded and hurried over to her. As soon as the lobster saw them, it let go of Emily and darted away. The rest of the creatures took one look at the penguin team and took off, leaving the room.

Dr. Blowhole groaned and rolled his one good eye. “It’s so hard to find good help nowadays,” he growled. He turned to Skipper and rode closer to him, but then he seemed to lose his nerve. He backed up and glared at his ache-enemy. “You may have beaten me this time,” he said as he turned and rode off on his segway. “But,” he called over his shoulder,” I  _ will _ return and get those humans!” Then he disappeared down the hall.

Relief washed over Emily. She ran to her friend and hugged her.

“Are you okay?” Jasmine asked her.

Emily nodded. “Are you?”

Jasmine shifted her feet. “I am, thanks to them.” She pointed to the penguins.

Then they noticed the confused looks Skipper and the others were giving them.

“What?” Jasmine asked, blinking.

“What did Blowhole mean when he called you ‘humans’?” Private asked,

Emily swallowed. She had hoped they could make it out of this without revealing that they were humans. But Blowhole ruined that for them. She shared a look with Jasmine and sighed. She opened her mouth to answer, but Jasmine blurted out,” We’re not animals in our world! We’re humans, okay?”

Skipper narrowed his eyes  suspiciously. “I knew something wasn’t right,” he grumbled. “You know, besides you two just being from another universe. We need to go and return you back to where you came from.”

Turning, the penguins started heading out. Emily and Jasmine glanced at each other, before hurrying after them. Emily was going to be glad to be out of Blowhole’s lair, but she was going to miss her time at the zoo. She had fun— minus the part that Blowhole had captured her and almost put that helmet on her. She was going to miss Julien.

_ I’ll always remember my time with him, _ she thought.

* * *

**Central Park Zoo, Clock Tower**

The lobsters left not long after the one that took Emily ran off. Julien had wanted to follow them to their hideout and rescue her, but Maurice told him to leave it to the penguins.

“They aren’t here!” Julien had pointed out, fear making him angry.

“But they went to Blowhole’s lair; I’m sure they’re working on stopping him. And while they’re there, they’ll save your friend,” Maurice added, sounding totally convinced that the penguins could handle this whole situation. But Julien wasn’t so sure, and now he still had his doubts as time slipped by.

At some point, Mort had joined them. He sat mostly still, but every now and again he’d fidget, obviously bored. Julien knew he didn’t really care for Emily, and he had a feeling the little lemur would be glad when she left to return to her world. But Julien was going to miss her. She reminded him so much of a close friend he left back on Madagascar and if it was up to him, he’d beg for her to stay.

_ But Skipper will never let her, _ he thought, sighing.

The moon was rising higher in the sky as the lemurs waited for any movement down below. Once or twice, the king thought he saw stirring underneath the trees, but it was only a cat or a squirrel. For a long time there was no sign of the penguins or Emily. He was beginning to lose hope when he saw shadows in the moonlight. He looked down, praying that it wasn’t just another creature who lived in the park.

His heart soared when he saw one penguin emerge from the undergrowth, then another, followed by another. Soon the whole commando team was visible, and next came the female penguin. He watched in anticipation as she turned and called into the bushes. A pretty brown lemur stepped out into the open and he couldn’t stop himself from jumping with joy.

“They did it!” he cheered.

Maurice sat calmly beside him. “I told you they would,” he commented.

Mort glared down at Emily, muttering under his breath.

“Let’s go meet them!” Julien turned to run down the tower, but Maurice stopped him. He blinked, annoyed. “What is it, Maurice?” he demanded.

“Remember, Your Majesty,” he said softly,” you have to say goodbye soon. She has to return to her world and…” He paused for a moment, then added very quietly,” And you may never see her again.”

_ Never see her again? _ Julien thought, disheartened. He knew he had to say goodbye, but it never occurred to him what that meant. He’ll never see her again… She’ll be in her world and he’ll be here.  _ And our last moments together were interrupted by those lobsters! _ Anger and pain filled him as he climbed down the tower, meeting up with the penguins and Emily just inside the zoo.

As soon as she saw him, Emily ran to him and hugged him. He hugged her back, fighting back tears. He had to be strong for her sake.

“Are you okay?” he asked.

She nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine.” She must have noticed that he was struggling to keep it together because she asked him,“ Are  _ you _ okay?”

He straightened up and pushed down all his sadness. “Yes, fine. So, how’d it go?” He turned to Skipper.

The lead penguin sighed and rolled his eyes. “Didn’t go as planned, but we managed. Come on, boys,” he added to his team. “Let’s get back to HQ, and Kowalski can start working on sending these two home.”


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**Inside Penguins’ HQ**

Jasmine stood beside Emily, glancing nervously at the zoo animals. All except for Kowalski was in the main room with them. The tall penguin was in his lab, building something that would send the females back to their world. Nobody spoke; the silence was almost unbearable.

Even though it was late, none of them seemed tired enough to sleep. In fact, everyone seemed restless. Skipper seemed determined not to relax until the girls were gone. Sighing, Jasmine turned to her friend and whispered to her,” I can’t wait to get home.”

Emily blinked at her, then glanced at Julien. She didn’t need to say anything for Jasmine to understand what she was thinking.

_ She’s going to miss Julien, _ she realized.  _ Am I not as important as that narcissist king? No, probably not to her. _ She sighed again and glanced at Kowalski’s lab door, painfully aware that Julien had joined them, and he and Emily talked quietly.

On the other side of the room, Skipper stood by himself, thinking how he can’t wait until these unexpected newcomers were far, far away from him and his team and their zoo, a whole world apart. Then everything can go back to normal.

“Are you okay?”

The leader jumped at the voice, then relaxed. It was only Private.

“I’m fine,” Skipper lied.

For a moment Private didn’t respond. Then he sighed and murmured,” I wish they could stay.”

Skipper shook his head. “They can’t,” he told him, staying firm with his decision. These females didn’t belong here. They could never fit in with zoo life, especially since they used to be humans. They needed to get back home and return to their normal.  _ And the sooner, the better. _ He glanced at Kowalski’s lab.  _ Hurry up, Kowalski! _ He wants them gone before Blowhole returns and tries to take control of them again.

Just then the door leading to Kowalski’s lab opened, and the tall penguin rushed out. “I did it!” he declared, halting in front of his leader.

Skipper eyed him. “Where is it?” he demanded. He wasn’t holding anything.

“In my lab,” he replied, pointing. “It’s too big to carry.”

“Hey!” Skipper called across the room, and Emily looked up from her conversation with Julien. Was it time to leave already? “Let’s go!” the leader told them.

Emily sighed. “I’m going to miss you,” she whispered to the king.

He entwined his tail with hers. He didn’t speak, but the look he gave her told her everything he could have ever said. She leaned into him, savoring this moment. Her surroundings melted away, and it was just them. Then they were interrupted by a voice calling from above.

Startled, Emily looked up to see Marlene jumping into the lair. She brightened when she saw that the females were still there. She hurried over to Skipper and said,” Oh great, they haven’t left yet.”

“What are you doing here, Marlene?” he asked.

“I wanted to say goodbye,” she explained, then turned to Emily and Jasmine. “I wish we had spent more time together,” she admitted.

Jasmine nodded in agreement. “It was fun here. I almost wish we could stay. But I know we can’t,” she went on, seeming to notice the look Skipper gave her. She glanced at Emily, her eyes revealing her exasperation.

Emily giggled under her breath, then grew serious again when Skipper passed them, heading into Kowalski’s lab. The tall penguin was right behind him, followed by Private and Rico. Emily glanced at Julien, her heart aching. Then she took a deep breath and entered the other room. She stopped dead when she saw a large object in front of her. It was a circular thing with wires leading to it, and as she stared, Kowalski punched in some numbers on a keypad.

A purple and blue vortex appeared, swirling round and round, almost hypnotizing. She snapped out of her trance when Jasmine stopped beside her. She eyed the invention nervously. “Is it safe?” she asked.

“Of course,” Kowalski answered, sounding indignant. “All you have to do is walk through.”

“Right,” Skipper said with authority. “Let’s go, girls.”

Emily sighed. She wanted to stay a bit longer, but she knew Skipper wanted them gone as soon as possible. She glanced at her best friend, who was staring wide eyed at the vortex. She leaned closer to whisper in her ear,” I’m sure it’s fine. We’ll go through together.”

Jasmine looked at her, gratitude in her eyes. But whatever she was about to say was interrupted by Julien, who came up and put his hand on Emily’s shoulder. “Well, I guess this is goodbye,” he murmured.

She nodded, feeling her heart ache with sadness, unable to reply because she was afraid of her voice breaking. She fought back tears as Julien hugged her. They separated when Marlene and Private walked up.

“It was nice meeting you,” Private said to Emily and Jasmine.

“Yeah, I wish you can stay here,” Marlene added, with a glance at Skipper. “Two more females at the zoo would make it more bearable. But I understand that you can’t,” she went on when Skipper opened his mouth to protest. “You have lives you need to get back to. I wish you the best.”

“Thanks,” Jasmine said, smiling.

“We’ll always remember our time here,” Emily responded, meaning it.

Suddenly Jasmine noticed that Rico was standing off to the side, as if avoiding all this mushy stuff. Their eyes met, and she waddled over to him. “So,” she began awkwardly. He blinked at her, but didn’t make a sound. She sighed and turned to walk off, but he stopped her. She stared at him in surprise.

“‘Bye,” he grunted, reaching his flipper out.

She blinked, then shook it, feeling warmth spread through her body. She wished she’d spent more time with Rico, but she was just glad that he finally decided that she wasn’t a spy or anything.

While Jasmine went over to Rico, Emily glanced around and spotted Maurice and Mort standing together. Mort glared at her, but Maurice just watched everyone saying goodbye with a calm expression on his face. She walked over to them, noticing Julien following her. Maurice seemed surprised that she came over, but then he smiled.

“I hope you enjoyed your time here,” the aye-aye said.

She nodded. “I did.” She looked down at Mort. “Hey, Mort.”

He continued to glare at her.

“I know you don’t like me,” she went on carefully. “But I like you, and I wished we had got along better. I’m going to miss you.”

He blinked his big eyes, but said nothing.

Skipper sighed as he watched everyone say goodbye to the girls. He kept glancing at the vortex, then Kowalski, who stood beside him, then everyone else.  _ Come on! _ he thought impatiently. Finally, after what seemed like forever, Jasmine and Emily finally came back.

He asked them,” Ready?”

They nodded.

“Then off you go.” Skipper pointed to the vortex.

They took a step forward, when suddenly Julien ran forward and threw himself at Emily. “Don’t go!” he begged, wrapping his arms around the brown lemur.

Skipper hurried to them and pulled them apart. “They have to go, Ringtail,” he told the king, trying not to roll his eyes. “They don’t belong here. You knew they had to go.”

Julien stared desperately at Skipper. “Please, can’t they stay?”

“No.” Skipper looked him in the eyes. “You care about her, don’t you?” He pointed to Emily, and Julien nodded. “Well, you must let her go, because while she’s here, she’s not safe. Blowhole will try again and again to get both of them. We must send them back to their world, where they will be safe.”

“But what if Blowhole uses his machine again to pull us back here?” Jasmine asked nervously.

“He won’t,” Kowalski answered. “It’s destroyed. I saw it myself. He won’t be using that ever again.”

“But he could build a new one,” Emily pointed out.

Skipper looked at them. “Yes, he could, but you’re still safer in your world than you are here. It’ll be harder for him to get you there, then it would be for him to get you here.” He turned back to Julien. “Do you want Blowhole to capture them again and put them under his control?”

Julien sighed and muttered,” No.”

“Then they must go,” Skipper insisted.

For a moment it looked like Julien was going to continue to argue. But in the end, he stepped back and said,” Fine. They can leave.”

Skipper felt a sparkle of annoyance. It sounded like he was giving him his permission, but he didn’t say anything more to Julien, just nodded and turned back to the girls.

“Leave, now,” he ordered.

Emily gulped and glanced at Jasmine.  _ This is it, _ she thought, turning to the vortex. She reached down and took hold of Jasmine’s hand. Then they stepped through the portal, which sucked them in immediately.

At first all they saw was flashes of purple and blue, then that faded and they were in complete darkness again. Pain shot through their bodies as they were transformed back into humans. They were close to passing out when suddenly there was a popping sound and they found themselves being spat out of the TV.

They landed on Emily’s bed, still holding hands. Groaning, they sat up. Behind them, the portal closed. Emily looked up, sighing with relief. They had made it.

Letting go of her friend’s hand, Jasmine climbed off the bed just as the door opened and Emily’s brother poked his head in. “What’s all this noise?” he demanded.

Emily joined her friend. “Uh, nothing,” she stammered. “Uh, what time is it?”

“Almost noon,” he replied, sounding confused.

“And what day is it?” Jasmine added.

He looked even more confused. “Friday,” he answered.

Emily and Jasmine glanced at each other. They spent a whole day in the Penguins of Madagascar universe, but it seemed like no time at all passed in their world. It was strange. But they didn’t want to explain all this to Emily’s brother. They knew that he’d think they were crazy.

They were glad when he shrugged and left the room without another word. Emily looked at Jasmine. “Now what?” she asked.

Jasmine’s eyes were shining. “Story idea?” she asked.

Excitement ran through Emily. “Oh, yes!” she agreed, climbing back on her bed and pulling out blank sheets of paper. She thought for a moment before asking,” How do we start?”

Jasmine joined her, looking thoughtful. Then she brightened and picked up a pencil. She wrote down her idea and then handed it to Emily, who read it silently.

_ Emily sat in her room with her best friend, Jasmine. They were trying to work on a story, but Emily kept getting distracted by the television. _

Emily giggled and added onto it. Jasmine read it to herself.

_ Jasmine, on the other hand, didn’t care what was happening on the show that was playing in the background. She just wanted to get this chapter finished with. _

Jasmine added:  _ But between Emily’s wandering mind and writer’s block, they weren’t getting anything done. _

They continued to work on the story, but after a while, Jasmine broke the silence. “So,” she began awkwardly. “That was some adventure, huh?”

Emily looked up from the story. “Yeah.” Her eyes shone, then they darkened with sadness. “But I miss Julien already. I wish we could have stayed…”

Jasmine shifted positions and avoided eye contact as she asked,” What’s so great about him? I’m better than that annoying lemur… Aren’t I?” she added uncertainty.

“Of course you’re great,” Emily assured her. “It’s just… Oh, I don’t know. There’s just something special about Julien.” She turned and looked out the window.

Jasmine sighed, thinking,  _ And I’m not special? _

She tried to make sense of the feelings running through her: Jealousy and anger; sadness and guilt. But most of all, affection toward her best friend. She wanted so much to confess her love, but she didn’t think Emily would share it.

Emily must have noticed the look on her friend’s face because she asked,” Something wrong?”

Shaking her head, Jasmine was about to say no, but before she could stop herself, she blurted out,” I like you, okay?”

Emily blinked. “Uh, I like you, too,” she stammered, not understanding what Jasmine meant.

“No,  _ like, _ like you,” she muttered.

Shock entered Emily’s eyes. “Oh… um… I… I didn’t know…”

Jasmine sighed. “Because I didn’t want you to know.”

“I… um… I’m not sure what to say…”

_ Then don’t say anything! Don’t humiliate me any farther! _

To her surprise, Emily shifted closer to her and laid her hand on Jasmine’s. “I wish you would have told me sooner,” she murmured.

“Why?” Jasmine blinked in surprise. “You’re always talking about Julien,” she went on, groaning. “I didn’t think you liked me that way.”

Emily stared into her eyes, which sent a shiver down Jasmine’s spine. “I always felt a connection between us, deep down. Yeah, I also had feelings for Julien, but mainly because I never thought we could be a thing. But now that you mention you like me, maybe, just maybe we  _ can _ be a thing.”

Joy surged through Jasmine, but when a thought struck her, dread crept inside her. “You’re not just saying that because you can’t be with Julien?”

Emily shook her head. “I promise you that I’m not just saying that because I can’t be with Julien,” she said, scooting closer and wrapping her arm around her friend. Jasmine leaned into her, feeling her heart beat faster. This is the moment she’s been longing for, for so long.

Neither of them spoke another word about their newfound love; instead, they worked on the story they started. Not long after that, it was time for Jasmine to leave, but they set a time to hang out again to finish the story. Now Emily sat in her room, reading over what they wrote and thinking about their time at the zoo. She wondered what everyone was doing.


	14. Epilogue

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own The Penguins of Madagascar or any of its characters but I do own a couple of characters in this story.

**Coney Island**

Angrily, Dr. Blowhole rode back and forth on his segway, throwing out curses every now and again. His lobsters watched him nervously, afraid to speak in case the dolphin turned his fury on them. Finally, after a while of ranting out loud, Blowhole came to a halt and glared down at one of the lobsters.

“Red one,” he said sharply.

Instantly the creature ran to him, stopping a little way from him. “Yes, boss?” he asked hesitantly.

“Pull up the feed from the peng-u-ins HQ,” Blowhole ordered.

“Yes, boss.” Hurriedly, the lobster ran to a computer and pushed a button. A video popped up on the big screen, and Blowhole watched it closely.

The penguins, the lemurs, and the two females were in the secret HQ inside the island. Nobody talked, but as Blowhole observed them, Private walked over to Skipper.

“Are you okay?” the young penguin asked his leader.

Skipper turned to him. “I’m fine,” he said, though Blowhole could tell that he didn’t seem fine.

Neither of them spoke for a moment, then Private sighed and murmured,” I wish they could stay.”

“They can’t,” Skipper responded, shaking his head.

Blowhole narrowed his eyes.  _ They’re going to send the humans home! What will I do then? _ He groaned inwardly as he thought about rebuilding his machine to pull them back here, but before the transport would be successful, the machine would explode and they would end up with the penguins. He’d have to go to the zoo to retrieve them, but his attempt to capture them there would fail so he’d have to return to his lair. Later, when the penguins show up to get the coordinates, he’ll almost achieve his plan, but just before he could, Skipper comes in and ruins everything. Then he and his team sends the females home, and Blowhole would have to repeat the whole thing again.

_ Is it worth it? Repeating the same thing over and over again? _

“No,” he decided out loud.

“No, boss?” the lobster asked him.

Blowhole glared at it, then turned away. “The human plan has failed,” he told his minions. “The peng-u-ins have won… for now,” he quickly added. “I will think of another plan that doesn’t involve getting help from another universe, an even better plan that Skipper and the others won’t be able to stop!” He threw his head back and let out a menacing laugh that echoed throughout his lair.

* * *

**Central Park Zoo, Lemur Habitat**

King Julien sat on his throne, staring up at the sky in hopes of it turning purple again, but it remained blue, with white clouds floating across it. He sighed and forced his eyes away. He spotted Mort on the ground, chasing his tail. He was so miserable that he didn’t even think he would find pleasure in being mean to the annoying little creature.

Sighing again, he looked up at the sky once more, willing it to change colors and spit out that pretty brown lemur and her female penguin friend. But as he stared, nothing happened.

“Your Majesty?”

The voice made him jump and he looked down to see Maurice standing in front of his throne.

“What is it, Maurice?” the king demanded, anger rising in him.

“Are you okay?” Maurice asked him anxiously.

Julien glared down at him; then he sighed and shook his head miserably. “I miss her!” he confessed as he jumped down to join his adviser.

“I know, Your Majesty,” Maurice murmured sympathetically. “But,” he went on quickly,” she had to go. She didn’t belong here. She belonged in her world. And I know it’s going to take time, but eventually you’ll see that you did the right thing by letting her go.”

Julien didn’t say anything. He looked up at the sky again.

“Hey, I know!” Maurice suddenly said, and Julien turned back to him, confused. “Why don’t we go see what the penguins are doing? That might cheer you up.”

The king was doubtful, but he agreed anyway. Maurice called Mort, who came running up, and the three of them left their habitat.

* * *

**Penguin Habitat**

“Okay, boys, time for some drills.” Skipper paced in front of his team. “We need to get back to normal,” he went on,” so today we’re—“ He stopped talking when he noticed that nobody was paying attention to him. Burning with anger, the leader ran to each of them, slapping them in the face, then came to a halt in front of them again.

Instantly his team snapped back to awareness. “Sorry, Skippah,” the youngest member apologized, frowning.

“Yeah, sorry,” Kowalski echoed, while Rico nodded and grunted,” Sorry.”

Skipper sighed. “I guess it’s gonna take some time for us to get back to normal.”

“I know they were only here for a day,” Private started,” but it’s strange that they’re not here anymore.”

“Yeah,” Kowalski agreed, surprising Skipper. “I know they didn’t belong here,” he quickly explained. “But I was curious about them and could have done tests on them. It would have helped my study on what universal travel does to animals— or in this case, humans who had turned into animals.” He let out a long sigh.

Even Rico seemed sad that the females weren’t here anymore. Skipper had to think of something fast before his team became too depressed to do anything.

Suddenly an idea came to him. He smiled and said,” Come on, boys. I think what we need right now is some snow cones.”

Their eyes lit up with eagerness and they followed their leader out of the HQ. But before they could leave their habitat, someone called out to them and they turned to see the lemurs climbing over the gate. The king and his subjects landed on the island in front of the penguins.

“What do you want, Ringtail?” Skipper demanded.

“What are you silly penguins doing?” Julien asked, flicking Skipper’s beak.

The leader forced himself not to roll his eyes. Even though he found the lemurs annoying, he was sort of glad that some things were back to normal faster than others. “Heading to the park to get snow cones,” he answered.

“Oh, so you’re not going to be down there?” He pointed to the hole leading into their HQ.

Skipper narrowed his eyes. “Why?” he asked.

“Oh, nothing important.” He started walking across the island. “I’m just thinking, we might watch a bit of television while you’re gone.” He reached down to push the fishbowl aside, but before he could touch it, Skipper jumped on him and wrestled him to the ground.

“I don’t think so, lemur,” he growled in his ear. “Besides,” he added as he let the king get up,” there’s no way you’ll get past our security system.”

Julien glared at him. “I bet I could,” he objected.

“How?” Skipper retorted.

“I’ll just use Mort to set them all off before going in there.”

“There’s ones that will only go off if  _ you _ set foot in there.”

“I don’t believe you. How would it be telling between me and Mort?”

“Go in there, if you don’t believe me.”

Julien hesitated, then said,” I’ll make something that looks like me and toss it in there.”

“That won’t work,” Skipper told him, and the two of them continued to argue as the others watched on with mixed emotions. Maurice and Private stared at them anxiously; Kowalski was reflecting on how everything was beginning to go back to normal; Rico was eagerly watching his leader, urging him to attack Julien again; and Mort stared at his king’s feet longingly.

As he argued with the annoying lemur, relief washed over Skipper. It almost felt like those females never came, and soon it would all be a distant memory. He couldn’t wait until it was all forgotten about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THE END!!

**Author's Note:**

> Please leave a comment and tell me what you think! Thank you!


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